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E. HAIKISLL. 

2 21 ARCH ST. 



THE 

¥OEKS 



THOMAS PAINE, 

A HERO IN THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



AN ACCOUNT OF HIS LIFE. 



" The world is my country ; to do good my religion." 



IN THKEE VOLUMES. 



VOL. I. 

COMPRISING 

LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE/' "MISCELLANEOUS THEOLOGICAL- 
WRITINGS" AND "LETTERS TO GEORGE WASHINGTON." 



PHILADELPHIA: 

PUBLISHED BY E. HASKELL, 
134 ARCH STREET. 

1854. 
T 



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Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 

E. HASKELL, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the 
Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



THE 



LIFE 



OP 



THOMAS PAINE. 



PREFACE. 

The Publisher deeming these memoirs incomplete and de- 
fective, from the omision of some important circumstances 
which would tend to illustrate yet more, he thinks, than we 
have hitherto done, the injustice and persecution Mr. Paine 
experienced, not only from us as a people and nation, but from 
the British government, to whose arbitrary rule and malad- 
ministration he was obnoxious. We acknowledge many omis- 
sions, which if detailed and duly considered by our readers, 
would tend to exalt his character in no small measure, but in 
preparing the succeeding pages for publication, we did not 
contemplate more than supplying such materials as would 
compel the prejudiced and those who had thoughtlessly joined 
in the opposition he experienced when living, or who had 
subsequently assailed his reputation, to pause and consider 
whether they did so wisely and justly. We think we have 
supplied abundant materials for this purpose, sufficient, if they 
were duly considered, effectually to turn the tide of prejudice, 
and that henceforward the name of. Paine, which has been 
Cast out as evil, will be regarded with especial reverence, and 
held in grateful remembrance : all we ask is an attentive pe- 
rusal, and we think the dark cloud which has obscured his 
fair fame and memory will then have passed away for ever. 

We have passingly noticed, although the publisher thinks 
not sufficiently, the prosecution which Mr. Paine was exposed 
to from the British government, and the strenuous exertions 
made to suppress his writings. The history of all the various 
movements of hostility and petty malignity would be interest- 
ing, but would occupy too much space in detail. We can only 
mention the first demonstration or commencement of hostilities 

(3) 



IV PREFACE. 

in a Royal Proclamation, dated May 19, 1792, by King 
G-eorge III. : — 

" Whereas, divers wicked and seditious writings have been 
published, and industriously circulated, tending to excite 
tumult and disorder, and raise groundless jealousies and dis- 
contents in the minds of our faithful and loving subjects re- 
specting the laws, civil and religious, established in this king- 
dom ;" with very much more to the same effect. And then 
there are strict orders and command given " to all magistrates 
to discover and punish the authors and printers of such wicked 
and seditious writings, it being our determination to carry the 
laws vigorously into execution against such offenders as afore- 
said." A prosecution was commenced against Paine himself, 
the printers, publishers, and even against all known buyers 
and possessors of his works ; the writings were ignominiously 
and publicly burnt by the common hangman ; and a series of 
persecution and prosecutions was directed against the writings 
of Paine, and the sellers of his works, his readers and ad- 
mirers, which have been continued till within a very few 
years. It would be altogether beyond our power to detail all 
the vexatious prosecutions and sufferings of individuals as a 
consequence of these and similar enactments; if collected, 
they would fill a folio volume not inferior to Fox's Book of 
Martyrs, most of them sufferers in a purer and better cause, 
and of a higher, nobler, and more disinterested character than 
those described by that historian. Without, therefore, enter- 
ing into further details, we submit what we have written to 
the magnanimity and sense of justice of the American people, 
with the full confidence of a satisfactory verdict and a tri- 
umphant acquittal of all the charges with which the malevo- 
lence and bigotry of the clergy and their adhereats may have 
obscured his fair fame. 

In conclusion, to the reader. Certain we are that when 
opinions are free, cither in matters of government or religion, 
truth will finally and powerfully prevail. T. I. 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 



Perhaps there are few men who have rendered greater 
services to the cause of humanity in general, and our country 
in particular, who have been requited with more ingratitude, 
or have had more injustice done to their character and motives, 
than the subject of these few pages. That Mr. Paine should 
have, towards the close of his life, chosen the United States 
for his retreat, was perhaps very injudicious; he could not 
have gone, under the circumstances (just having published his 
Age of Reason), to a more unfavourable part of the world. 
A country like ours, at that period, and perhaps even now 
(although not to an equal extent as formerly), abounding in 
fanatics, was but little disposed to favour a man whose mind 
was bold, inquiring, liberal, free from prejudice, and who in 
principle was a Deist. Of all wrath, fanatical wrath is the 
most intense ; nor can it be a matter of much surprise, if by 
many his eminent revolutionary services were forgotten, , that 
great numbers, indeed all the religious community, afforded 
him but an ungracious reception, and that he was treated with 
neglect and illiberality. Now that almost half a century has 
elapsed since his decease, we may perhaps be better prepared 
to do justice to his character, especially as toleration, candour, 
and charity are more predominant than formerly, and the 
nation has more of reason, judgment, and good sense, we will 
hope, and less pious enthusiasm, or fanaticism. 

1* C5) 



VI THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

But however this may be, there were a chosen and enlight- 
ened few who, like himself, u bold enough to be honest, and 
honest enough to be bold/' feeling his value, continued to be 
his sincerely attached friends to his last hour; from some of 
these, as well as from other sources, we have gleaned the fol- 
lowing particulars : — 

Thomas Paine was born at Thetford, county of Norfolk, 
England, Jan. 29th, 1737. His father, Joseph Paine, was a 
staymaker by trade, and a member of the society of Quakers. 
His parents were respectable, although not in circumstances 
to afford him a college education ; all his learning, therefore, 
was obtained from a common English grammar school, where 
he acquired a slight knowledge of Latin, although it does not 
appear he ever was much of a proficient in the dead languages. 
He left school at thirteen years of age, or thereabouts, and 
during his studies he indicated no remarkable symptoms of that 
talent and genius which was to shine out so brightly in after 
life. After leaving school, he resided with his father, where he 
remained two or three years, then left his native town, and pro- 
ceeded to London, with the hope of acquiring a knowledge of 
the world, that he might improve his circumstances, and employ 
whatever of talent he might possess, to the best advantage. After 
staying in London a short time, he went to Dover, but not suc- 
ceeding in his business to his satisfaction, he went on board a 
privateer ; but it is not known how long he remained at sea, or 
what induced him to quit the naval profession and resume his 
own business. When he was about twenty-two years of age, 
he settled at Sandwich, and there became acquainted with a 
young woman of the name of Mary Lambert, the daughter 
of an exciseman, whom he married. She died the next year, 
at Margate. After her death he moved to London, and thence 
to his native town, Thetford, where he obtained a place in 
the Excise, which he retained till 1774. In 1768, he re- 



THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. VU 

moved to Lewes, in Sussex, where he married a Miss Oliver, 
with whom he lived but a short time, when a separation took 
place, the real cause of which, although many have been 
assigned, as is usual in such cases, was never known to the 
public. He was much respected whilst at Lewes, and mixed 
freely in circles far above him in circumstances and social po- 
sition, which can only be regarded as a just tribute due to his 
talents, conduct, and conversational powers. He was the author 
of several small pamphlets, and articles in the county news- 
paper, by which means, it is probable, he obtained some repu- 
tation, and was the cause of his obtaining an introduction to 
Dr. Franklin, then in London, who it appears soon discovered, 
in his interviews with Paine, that he was conversing with a 
man of no ordinary character, and which resulted in the Doctor 
furnishing him with a letter of introduction to one of his most- 
intimate friends in the United States. Under Dr. Franklin's 
patronage and advice he sailed for America, and arrived in 
Philadelphia in 1775. The circumstances under which he 
arrived in our city, and the glorious results of his advice and 
counsel, have been so admirably and eloquently described by 
the late lamented Gr. Lippard, that we cannot do better than 
employ his very language, as conveying a better and more 
perfect idea of the invaluable services of Paine, in this pecu- 
liar juncture of our national affairs, than we could otherwise 
furnish or supply : — 

" It was in the time when a band of rebels sat in Carpen- 
ter's Hall, when the smoke of Lexington and Bunker Hill 
was yet in the sky, and the undried blood of Warren, and all 
the martyrs, was yet upon the ground — it was in this time, in 
the blood-red dawn of our Revolution, that a scene of some 
interest took place in the city of AYilliam Penn. Look yon- 
der, and behold that solitary lamp, flinging its dim light 
through the shadows of a neatly furnished room. 

" Grouped around the table, the glow of the lamp pouring 



Vlll THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

full in their faces, are four persons — a Boston Lawyer, a 
Philadelphia Printer, a Philadelphia Doctor, and a Virginia 
Planter. 

" Come with me into that lonely room. Let us seat our- 
selves there. Let us look into the faces of these men — that 
man with the bold brow and resolute look, is one John 
Adams, from Boston; next to him sits the calm-faced Benja- 
min Bush; there you see the marked face of the printer, one 
Benjamin Franklin; and last of all, your eye rests upon a 
man distinguished above all others, by his height, the noble 
outlines of his form, and the solemn dignity of his brow. 
That man is named Washington — one Mr. George Washing- 
ton, from Mount Vernon. 

u And these men are all members of the rebel Congress. 
They have met here to talk over the affairs of their country. 
Their conversation is deep-toned — cautious — hurried. Every 
man seems afraid to give utterance to the thoughts of his 
bosom. Confiscation — the gibbet — the axe ! These have been 
the reward of brave men before now, who dared to speak trea- 
son against his Majesty by the grace of God. Therefore is 
the conversation of the four patriots burthened with restraint 
and gloom. They talk of Bunker Hill, of Lexington, of the 
blood-thirsty British ministry, of the weak and merciless 
British king. 

" Then, from the lips of Franklin, comes the great ques- 
tion — Where is this war to end ? Are we fighting only for a 
change in the British ministry ? Or — or — for the independence 
of our native land ? There is silence in that room. Wash- 
ington!, Adams, Hush, all look into each others' faces, and 
arc silent. Bound to England by the ties of ancestry — lan- 
guage — religion — the very idea of separation from her seems 
a blasphemy. 

"Yes, with their towns burnt, their people murdered — ■ 
Bunker Hill smoking there, Lexington bleeding yonder— still 



THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. IX 

these colonists cling to the name of England, still shudder at 
the big word that chokes their utterance to speak — Inde- 
pendence. 

" At this moment, while all is still, a visiter is announced. 
A man somewhat short in stature, clad in a coat of faded 
brown. He takes his seat at the table, is introduced to these 
gentlemen by Franklin, and then informed of the topic under 
discussion. Look at his brow, his flashing eye, as in earnest 
words he pours forth his soul. Washington, Adams, Hush, 
Franklin, all are hushed into silence. At first, the man in 
the brown coat startles, horrifies them with his political blas- 
phemy. But as he goes on, as his broad solid brow warms 
with fire, as his eye flashes the full light of a soul roused into 
all its life, as those deep, earnest tones speak of the Indepen- 
dence of America — her glorious future — -her people, that shall 
swell into countless millions — her navy, that shall whiten the 
uttermost sea — her destiny, that shall stride over the wrecks 
of thrones, to the universal empire of the Western Continent. 
Then behold — they rise round the table — they press that man 
in the brown coat by the hand — nay, the Virginia planter, 
Washington, grasps both his hands, and in a voice deepened 
by emotion, begs him, for the sake of God, to write these 
words in a book — a book that shall be read in all the houses, 
and thundered from all the pulpits in America. — Do you see 
the picture, my friends ? That man in the brown coat, stand- 
ing there, flushed, trembling with the excitement of his own 
thoughts — that splendidly formed Virginia planter on one side 
grasping him by the hand, those great-souled men encircling 
him on the other, John Adams, Benjamin Bush, Benjamin 
Franklin ? Their gleaming eyes shine with one soul, and read 
on the great cloud of the future this one word — Independence 

" Let this scene pass. Let us follow this man in the brown 
coat through the year 1775. 

" The day after this scene, that modest Virginia planter, 



X THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

George Washington,* was named commander-in-chief of the 
Continental army. 

" And in the summer days of ; 75, that man in the brown 
coat was seen walking up and down, in front of the old State 
House. His great forehead shone in full sunlight, while, with 
his hand placed behind his back, he went slowly along the 
pavement. Then he would hurry to his lonely garret, seize 
the quill, and write down the deep thoughts of his brain. 

. " Then forth again for a walk in the old State-House Square 
— up and down, under these old trees, he wanders all the after- 
noon — at night, there is a light burning all night, till the break 
of day. 

" Let us look into that garret window — what see you there ? 
A rude and neglected room— a man short in stature sitting 
beside an old table, with scattered sheets of paper all about 
him — the light of the unsnuffed candle upon his brow — that 
unfailing quill in his hand ! 

" Ah ! my friends, you may talk to me of the sublimity of 
your battles, whose poetry is bones and skulls, whose glories 
are like the trophies of the butcher's shambles — but for me, 
there is no battle so awfully sublime as one like this now being 
fought before your eyes. 

" A poor, neglected author, sitting in his garret — the world, 
poverty, time, space, all forgotten — as with his soul kindled 
into one steady blaze, he plies that fast-moving quill. That 
quill writes down words on paper, that which shall burn into 
the brains of kings, words like arrows, winged with fire and 
pointed with vitriol. * 

u Go on, brave author, sitting in your garret, alone at this 
dread hour — go on — on, through the silent watches of the 
night, and God's blessiDgs fall, like breezes of June, upon 
your damp brow. Go on, in the name of God and man, for 
you arc writing the thoughts of a nation into birth. 

"For many days, in the year 1775, was that man in the 



THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. XI 

brown coat seen walking up and down the State House Square. 
The proud Tory passed by him with scorn. Yet he was think- 
ing great thoughts which would eat away the throne of that 
Tory's king ! The Tory, the vulgar rich man, the small dog 
in office, passed by him with scorn, but men of genius took 
him by the arm, and called him Brother. Look yonder ! 
There in a lonely garret, night after night, burns that solitary 
lamp — burns, and burns on, till break of day. 

" At last the work is done. At last, grappling the loose 
sheets in his trembling hands — trembling, because feverish 
with the toil of his brain — he rushes forth one morning. — His 
book is written ; it must now be printed — scattered to the 
homes of America. But not one printer will touch the book, 
not a publisher but grows pale at the sight of those dingy 
pages. Because it ridicules the British monarchy ; because it 
speaks out in plain words, that nothing now remains to be 
done but to declare the New World free and independent. 

u This shocks the trembling printers — touch such a mass of 
treasonable stuff? — never! But at last a printer is found, a 
bold Scotchman, named Robert Bell. Write that name on 
your hearts, for it is worthy of all reverence ! He trans- 
formed those loose pages into type, and on the 1st of January, 
1776, ' Common Sense' burst on the people of the New World 
like a Prophecy ! — Yes, that book bursts on the hearts and 
homes of America like a light from Heaven. 

" It is read by the mechanic at his bench ; the merchant at 
his desk, even the preacher in his pulpit reads it to his people, 
and scatters its great truths with the teachings of Revela- 
tion. 

" l It burst from the press/ says the great Doctor Rush, 
1 with an effect which has been rarely produced by types or 
paper, in any age or country/ 

" Ramsay, in his History of the Revolution, and his brother 
historian, Gordon, solemnly state the fact, that this book was 



Xll THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

the most important cause of the separation from the mother 
country. Thomas Jefferson, Joel Barlow, George Washing- 
ton, unite in their praises of this work. Long after its publi 
cation, Jefferson sent a government ship to bring the author 
home from France ; Washington invited him to the shelter of 
his own home ; Barlow described him, yes, the man in the 
brown coat, as l one of the most benevolent and disinterested 
of mankind; endowed with the clearest perception, an un- 
common share of original genius, and the greatest breadth of 
thought/ 

"In August, 1785, after the battle was fought, and the 
empire was established, Congress, in a solemn resolution, 
stamped the author of Common Sense with their approbation, 
as one of the greatest of the great men of the Revolution. 

" This book was the cause and forerunner of the Declara- 
tion of Independence. In this book, for the first time, were 
written these great words : ' The Free and Independent States 
of America/ 

" Let us follow this man in the brown coat through the 
scenes of the Revolution. 

"In the full prime of early manhood, he joins the army of 
the Revolution ; he shares the crust and the cold with Wash- 
ington and his men — he is with those brave soldiers on the 
toilsome march, with them by the camp-fire, with them in the 
hour of battle. Why is he with them ? 

u Is the day dark — has the battle been bloody — do the 
American soldiers despair ? Hark ! that printing-press yonder, 
which moves with the American camp in all its wanderings, 
is scattering pamphlets through the- ranks of the army, — 
pamphlets written by the author-soldier ; written sometimes 
on the head of a drum — or by the midnight fire, or amid the 
corses of the dead. Pamphlets that stamp great hopes and 
greater truths, in plain words, upon the hearts of the Conti- 
nental army. Tell me, was not that a sublime sight, to see a 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Xlll 

man of genius who might have shone as an orator, a poet ; a 
novelist, following, with untiring devotion, the bloody stamped 
footsteps of the Continental army ? 

"Yes, in the dark days of '76, when the soldiers of Wash- 
ington tracked their footsteps on the soil of Trenton, in the 
snows of Princeton, there, first among the heroes and patriots, 
there, unflinching in the hour of defeat, writing the i Crisis' 
by the light of the camp-fire, was the author-hero of the Re- 
volution. Yes, we will look into the half-clad ranks of Wash- 
ington's army, we will behold each corporal surrounded by a 
group of soldiers, as he reads aloud the pamphlets of the 
author-soldier. What hope, what joy, what energy, gleams 
over the veteran faces, as words like these break on the frosty 
air : ' These are the times that try men's souls. The summer 
soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from 
the service of his country ; but he that stands it now, deserves 
the love and thanks of men and women. Tyranny, like hell, 
is not easily conquered, yet we have this consolation with us, 
that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph/ 
Do not words like these stir up the blood ? 

" Yet can you imagine their effect when read to groups of 
starved and bleeding soldiers, by the red watch-fire, in the cold 
air of the winter dawn ? 

" Such words as these stirred up the starved Continentals 
to the attack on Trenton, and there, in the dawn of that glo- 
rious morning, George Washington, standing sword in hand 
over the dead body of the Hessian Ehal, confessed the magic 
influence of the author-hero's pen. 

" The vilest enemy of the author-hero, a base hireling of 
the English court, yes, even he, blasphemer, libeller of Jeffer- 
son, and Franklin, and Madison, as he was, even he, a thing 
so small in soul that his very masters were ashamed of him, 
was forced to confess that 'the cannon of Washington was not 
2 



Xiv THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

more formidable to the British, than the pen of the author of 
Common Sense/ 

" Is there a heart that does not throb at the name of the 
author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson, the statesman- 
hero of the Revolution ? 

" And do your hearts throb at the mention of his name, 
and yet refuse to pay a tribute of one solitary pulsation of 
justice to the memory of his brother-patriot, his forerunner 
in the work of freedom, the author-hero of the Eevolution, 
Thomas Paine V 

This elegant and eloquent tribute of respect to Paine, which 
also contains so much historical and reliable information, was 
part of an address delivered on the occasion of the celebration 
of the birth-day of Thomas Paine, by the Society of the Sun- 
day Institute, in the city of Philadelphia. It needs no apology 
for its insertion ; it is worthy of preservation, and we doubt 
not but our readers will regard it with favour. We will now 
resume the current of our biographical detail. We have hastily 
passed over the most unimportant and uninteresting portion 
of Paine's life — but having brought him to America at the 
instance of Dr. Franklin, we will endeavour to furnish some 
particulars of those great events which called his talents into 
activity, in which he took so prominent and decided a part, 
and on which his reputation both for good and evil, according 
to the peculiar views of his friends or enemies, is principally 
founded. He arrived here (Philadelphia) in 1774, although 
Dr. Rush states it was in 1772; but he is undoubtedly mis- 
taken in his dates, as we have ample means of determining. 
The difficulties in which this country was involved with Great 
Britain had commenced, and Dr. Franklin was in London, with 
the hopes of some amicable adjustment; but, as the prospect 
became more and more faint, and the signs of the coming 



THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. XV 

contest more evident and unmistakable, the Doctor very natu- 
rally, and with his usual sagacity, selected Paine as a man 
every way calculated to render important services to his 
country in the coming struggle. With a short letter of recom- 
mendation, therefore, he arrived in this country, where his first 
design appears to have been, according to Dr. Rush, to open 
a school for the instruction of young ladies in several branches 
of knowledge, which at that time were seldom taught in the 
schools of our country. Yale, in his Life of Paine, undoubt- 
edly the best which has been written — and to which we stand 
indebted for much and valuable information — awards great 
credit to Franklin, in that he had the genius to discover 
Paine's peculiar tact and talent, and despatch him to this 
country without committing himself as to his real motives in 
so doing ; and he also very justly remarks, " That this con- 
duct of Franklin, in preferring Paine to himself for this im- 
portant object, whilst it reflects the greatest credit upon Paine' s 
natural abilities, acquisitions, and moral virtues, redounds also 
to Franklin's glory; it marks also the calumniators of Paine, 
those who have attempted to present him to the public as a 
demoralized, vulgar, and illiterate man, as base, unprincipled 
slanderers, whose calumnies are not the less venomous for 
proceeding from reverend persons." 

Paine himself describes his arrival here, in the winter of 
1774, a few months, as he says, before the battle of Lexing- 
ton, which was fought in April, 1775. His first employment 
was with Mr. Aitken, a bookseller; and as editor of the Penn- 
sylvania Magazine, his introduction to that work, dated Jan. 
24, 1775, concludes thus : " Thus encompassed with difficul- 
ties, this first number of the Pennsylvania Magazine entreats 
a favourable reception, of which we shall only say, that like 
the early snowdrop, it comes forth in a barren season, and 
contents itself with foretelling the reader that choicer flowers 
are preparing to appear." " For this/' Dr. Rash tells us, "he 



XVI THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE 

received about one hundred and twenty-five dollars a year, and 
that the work was well sustained by Paine ; that his Song on 
the Death of General Wolfe, and his Reflections on the Death 
of Lord Give, gave it a sudden currency which few works of 
that kind have since had in our country." 

Meantime Franklin had arrived, and his intercourse and 
conversation with Paine resulted in the offer to put into his 
hands materials for the history of the times, when Paine 
somewhat surprised the philosopher, by showing him his copy 
of Common Sense, and that he had anticipated his designs 
and wishes. We have examined, with some attention, the 
conflicting claims of many individuals as to who first broached 
the doctrine of American Independence. Dr. Rush contends 
strongly for the merit of the suggestion ; he it was, he says, 
who suggested to Mr. Paine the propriety of preparing the 
public mind by means of some work of sufficient length for a 
perpetual separation from Great Britain; and Paine immedi- 
ately began to prepare his famous pamphlet in favour of that 
measure. When completed, it was shown to Dr. Franklin, 
Samuel Adams, and Judge Wilson, and they approving of it, 
it was printed by Robert Bell, a Scotchman • and " Common 
Sense," says Dr. Rush, " burst from the press with an effect 
which has been rarely produced by types and paper in any age 
or country." 

Whether the idea of independence was original with Paine, 
or the suggestion of some other person, it is certain that the 
real merit of efficiency, consistency, and determination of 
purpose, as well as all the qualities and exertions which could 
insure success, must unequivocally be his. At this period, no 
one talked about independence; no one thought about it. 
Petition after petition had been presented to the English 
government, but had met with only contemptuous refusals and 
rejections, and nothing but anger and despair seemed to be 
excited in the public mind — anger, at the unworthy treatment 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XV11 

received, and despair at being unable to offer any effectual re- 
sistance to oppression. It was a gloomy period of our national 
history. Paine's book — Common Sense — however, brought 
light out of darkness, and soon produced, what his writings 
upon all subjects rarely fail to produce, such is their manly, 
honest, straightforward, and logical character and tendency, 
" a change of opinion." The people were not prepared, and 
the greatest compliment which can be paid to the work 
" Common Sense," is the effect it so rapidly had upon the 
people who had before no predisposition towards its principles. 
Paine himself says, in Crisis, No. III. : 

" Independence was a doctrine scarce and rare even towards 
the conclusion of the, year 1775. All our politics had been 
founded on the hope or expectation of making the matter up, 
— a hope which, though general on the side of America, had 
never entered the head or heart of the British Court." Again, 
in Crisis, No. VII., he says: "I found the disposition of the 
people such that they might have been led by a thread and 
governed by a reed. Their attachment to Britain was obsti- 
nate, and it was at that time a kind of treason to speak 
against it." 

Even Cheetham, who wrote so much in opposition to Paine, 
and was his most decided and virulent enemy, is compelled to 
say : 

"This pamphlet, of forty octavo pages, holding out relief 
by proposing independence to an oppressed and despairing 
people, was published in January, 1776, speaking a language 
which the colonists had felt, but not thought of. Its popu- 
larity, terrible in its consequences to the parent country, was 
unexampled in the history of the press." At first, involving 
the colonists, it was thought, in the crime of rebellion, and 
pointing to a road leading inevitably to ruin, it was read with 
indignation and alarm ; but when the reader (and everybody 
read it, recovering the first shock) reperused it, its arguments 
2* B 



XV111 TEE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

nourishing his feelings, and appealing to his pride, reanimated 
his hopes, and satisfied his understanding, that " Common 
Sense," backed by the resources and force of the colonists, 
poor and feeble as they were, could alone rescue them from 
the unqualified oppression with which they were threatened. 
The unknown author, in the moments of enthusiasm which 
succeeded, was an angel sent from heaven to save from all the 
horrors of slavery, by his timely, powerful, and unerring 
counsels, a faithful but abused, a brave but misrepresented 
people. 

It is thus we owe our independence, as a nation, with much 
of the success which has attended our resistance to tyranny 
and oppression, perhaps even our present national prosperity 
and greatness, to Paine's zeal, enterprise, talents, and devotion 
to liberty. The people, when he produced his Common Sense, 
were not prepared, nor did they comprehend, the notions and 
doctrines he inculcated ; they read first from curiosity only, 
and then they soon became convinced of the soundness of his 
opinions. Thus he may be said to have produced the events 
he desired, by inoculating the entire people with the desire 
of independence. 

There was also another feature, in reference to Paine's lite- 
rary labours, no less honourable and praiseworthy than those 
which dictated the principles he so ably advocated, and that 
was, his entire disinterestedness and freedom from all mer- 
cenary motives. Although the success of this work was suvih 
that he might have justly made a large and independent fortune 
from the profits of the sale, yet he attempted nothing of the 
kind, but generously gave up the copyright to every state in 
the Union. 

It is surprising, so much have we honoured, rewarded, and 
almost overwhelmed with adulation our revolutionary heroes 
and statesmen, that Paine, who certainly rendered us greater 
and more important services than most of them, and was not 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XIX 

inferior to the most distinguished in zeal, devotion, and effi- 
cient assistance to the cause, that his merits and invaluable 
services should be so little appreciated. This does not speak 
well for our sense of justice, nor our national gratitude, nor 
that becoming respect and affection which is his rightful due. 
We do not know an instance of really disinterested conduct, 
which can be placed upon a par with that of his in reference 
to the publication of his political works in general, or that of 
Common Sense in particular. His liberality and conscientious 
discharge of his duty, extended to all of his serviceable writ- 
ings, as he was accustomed to call them. ""When I bring 
out my poetical and anecdotical works," he would say, " which 
will be little better than amusing, I shall sell them ; but I 
must have no gain in view, must make no traffic of my po- 
litical and theological writings ; they are with me matter of 
principle, and not matter of money ; I cannot desire to derive 
benefit from them, or make them the subject to attain it." 
And, twenty-seven years after the publication of " Common 
Sense," he says, in reference to his "Eights of Man/' and 
" Age of Reason," — the one of which was published in Eng- 
land, in 1791 and 1792, and the other in Paris, in 1795 — 
"I relinquish to the people of England all profit, as I had 
done to those of America, from the work. My reward existed 
in the ambition of doing good, and in the independent happi- 
ness of my own mind. In my publications I follow the rule 
I began ; that is, to consult with nobody, nor let anybody see 
what I write till it appears publicly ; were I to do otherwise, 
the case would be that, between the timidity of some who are 
so afraid of doing wrong that they never do right, the puny 
judgment of others, and the despicable craft of preferring 
expedient to right, as if the world were a set of babies in 
leading-strings, I should get forward with nothing." 

" My path is a right line, as straight and clear to me as a 
ray of light. The boldness (if they will have it so) with 



XX THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. 

which I speak on any subject, is a compliment to the person 
I address ; it is like saying to him, I treat' you as a man, and 
not as a child. "With respect to any worldly object, as it is 
impossible to discover any in me, therefore what I do, and my 
manner of doing it, ought to be ascribed to a good motive. 
In a great affair, where the good of man is at stake, I love to 
work for nothing ; and se fully am I under the influence of 
this principle, that I lose the spirit, the pleasure, and the 
pride of it, were I conscious that I looked for reward." 

In the course of the year 1776, Paine accompanied the 
army with General Washington, and was with him in his 
retreat from Hudson river to Delaware river. At this pe- 
riod, our author stood undismayed amid a flying Congress, 
and the general terror of the country. Yet he continued 
to boldly assert, that the Americans were in possession of 
resources sufficient to authorize hope, and he diligently labour- 
ed to inspire others with the same sentiments which animated 
himself. "His pen," says Cheetham, "was an appendage to 
the army of independence as necessary and formidable as its 
cannon." Independence was declared by Congress on the 4th 
July, 1776 — mainly the result of the publication of " Common 
Sense." On the 19th December was first issued " The Crisis," 
wherein, with a masterly hand, he stated every reason for 
" hope," and examined all the motives for apprehension. This 
work was continued at various intervals, and the last number 
appeared on the 19th April, 1783 — the same day a cessation 
of hostilities was proclaimed. 

In 1777, Congress unanimously, and unknown to Mr. Paine, 
appointed him Secretary in the foreign department. This 
office obliged him to reside with Congress, wherever it fled, 
or however it was situated, and he deserved the highest praise 
for the clearness, firmness, and magnanimity of his conduct. 
His uprightness, and entire fitness for his office, did not, 
however, prevent intrigue, or defeat cabal. A difference being 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XXI 

fomented between Congress and him, in relation to one of their 
Commissioners in Europe, he resigned his secretaryship on 
the 8 th of January, 1779, and declined, at the same time, 
pecuniary offers made him by the ministers of France and 
Spain — M, Gerard, and Don Juan Miralles. It would be 
tedious to enter into a detail of the particulars of this affair ; 
the party junto opposed to him, accused him of some defect 
of official or technical duty; but as its object was to prevent 
Deane's fraudulent claim from being paid, he was considered 
as deserving the approbation of the country, although he was 
censured by this party for his integrity. 

In October, 1780, was published by him, in Philadelphia, 
a Crisis extraordinary, being a long discussion on taxes. At 
this time the army was considerably depressed for want of 
pecuniary means ; but he treats their difficulties as of a tem- 
porary character, which a little privation and perseverance 
would remove. Other means, mainly by the instigation of 
Paine, were adopted by Congress, and it was proposed that a 
loan, or subsidy, should be negotiated with France. In pur- 
suance of this plan, Colonel Laurens, accompanied by Paine, 
proceeded to Paris. They sailed in February, 1781, and suc- 
ceeded in obtaining six millions of livres, as a present, and 
ten millions, as a loan, with which they safely arrived at Bos- 
ton in August, having under their charge two millions and a 
half in silver, and a ship and brig laden with clothing and 
military stores. Mr. Paine, also, previous to his going to 
France, when the public finances were in their worst state, 
and Washington feared the immediate dissolution of the army, 
for want of pay and necessaries, began and headed a subscrip- 
tion with five hundred dollars, all the money he could raise ; 
this increased to the large amount of fifteen hundred thousand 
dollars, which supplied the immediate distresses of government, 
and enabled Washington to carry into effect the plan to encom- 
pass and subdue Cornwallis, and thus terminate the war. 



XXU THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 

We might pursue the history of his invaluable services, and 
devotion to the cause of our country much farther, did not 
the brief space to which we are necessarily limited forbid. 
Yet, it is a melancholy fact notwithstanding, we have per- 
mitted a bigoted priesthood so to overrule and control our 
minds and judgments, that so far from holding him in that 
grateful remembrance which is so justly his due, the great 
majority of Christians, with scarcely one single exception, 
have cast out his name as evil, and scarcely name him but as 
the subject of reproach or calumny. We have, however, 
one single exception, all we know or ever heard of, so remark- 
able for its desire of speaking justly and truly concerning him, 
and more remarkable still, from its being the production of a 
minister who had been lecturing against infidelity. We give it 
place as highly honourable to the writer, who was the author 
of a poem entitled " Pleasures of Poverty." The extract is 
from a note appended, and the writer — Solomon South- 
wick. 

" No page in history, stained as it is with treachery and 
falsehood, or cold-blooded indifference to right or wrong, exhi- 
bits a more disgraceful instance of public ingratitude than that 
which Thomas Paine experienced, from an age and country 
which he had so faithfully served. As the Tintochus of the 
Revolution, and it is no exaggeration to style him such, we 
owe everlasting gratitude to his name and memory. Why, 
then, was he suffered to sink into the most wretched poverty 
and obscurity, after having in both hemispheres so signally 
distinguished himself as the friend of liberty and mankind ? 
Was his religion, or want of religion, the real or affected 
cause ? Did not those who feared his talents, make his reli- 
gion a pretext not only to treat him with cold neglect, but to 
strip him, if possible, of every laurel he had won in the poli- 
tical field, as the brilliant, undaunted, and successful advocate 
of freedom? As to his religion, or no religion, God alone 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XX1H 

must be the judge and arbiter of that. No human being — 
no human tribunal, can claim a right even to censure him for 
it, much less to make it the pretext for defrauding him, either 
in life or death, of the reward due to his patriotism, or the 
legitimate fame of his exertions in the cause of suffering 
humanity. Had Thomas Paine been guilty of any crime, we 
should be the last to eulogize his memory. But we cannot 
find he ever was guilty of any other crime than that of advanc- 
ing his opinions freely upon all subjects connected with public 
liberty and happiness. If he erred in any of his opinions, 
since we know that his intentions were pure, we are bound to 
cover his errors with the mantle of charity. We cannot say 
here all that we would wish to say. A brief note is insufficient, 
and this note must necessarily be too brief to do justice to so 
important a subject. We may, however, safely affirm that 
Paine' s conduct in America was that of a real patriot 

" In the French Convention, he displayed the same pure and 
disinterested spirit; there, his humanity shone forth in his 
exertions to save, at the risk of his own life, the unfortunate 
Louis XVI. from the scaffold. His Life, it is true, was writ- 
ten by a ministerial hireling, who strove in vain to blacken 
his moral character. The late James Cheetham, likewise, 
wrote his Life ; and we have no hesitation in saying, that we 
knew perfectly well at the time the motives of that author 
for writing and publishing a work which, we have every rea- 
son to believe, is a libel almost from beginning to end. In 
fact, Cheetham had become tired of this country, and had 
formed a plan to return to England, and become a ministerial 
editor, in opposition to Wm. Cobbett, and his Life of Paine 
was written to pave his way back again. We therefore pre- 
sume that he acted upon the principle that the end justifies 
the means. Besides, we believe that he had totally changed 
his political principles from conviction, and felt the same 
against everything republican that he had before felt for every- 



XXIV THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

thing that belonged to monarchy or aristocracy ; and hence was 
the more easily led to believe in the calumnies propagated 
against Paine, to whose memory we feel bound, by truth and 
justice alone, to pay the feeble tribute this note conveys. 
Had Thomas Paine been a Grecian or Roman patriot in olden 
times, and performed the same public services as he did for 
this country, he would have had the honour of an Apotheosis. 
The Pantheon would have been opened to him, and we should 
at this day regard his memory with the same veneration that 
we do that of Socrates and Cicero. But posterity will do him 
justice. Time, that destroys envy and establishes truth, will 
clothe his character in the habiliments that justly belong to 
it. In fact, at this moment, the one-half or more of New 
England, where he has been the most abused on account of his 
religion, have adopted a creed so much resembling his, that they 
have not the same ground as formerly to quarrel with his me- 
mory on that account. In the mean time we cannot resist the 
disposition to say, that in suffering the tomb of the author of 
Common Sense, The Crisis, and the Rights of Man to lie 
neglected in the first place ; and secondly, in permitting it to 
be violated, and his bones shipped off to a foreign country, 
contrary to all the laws of decency and civilization, we have 
added nothing to the justice or dignity of our national cha- 
racter; and we shall rejoice if impartial history tax us not 
with a gross departure from both." 

Such is the testimony which one honest and disinterested 
Christian professor, and more surprising still, a Christian 
minister, bears to the character and services of Paine. This, 
however, applies principally to his revolutionary labours, the 
merit of which, although many, indeed the greater portion, of 
the Christian community attempt to obscure, they do not, 
they dare not absolutely deny. We have hitherto confined our- 
selves to his political character ; and if this was his sole claim 
to greatness and distinction, we have related sufficient to esta- 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XXV 

Wish Lis reputation on the very highest pinnacle of the temple 
of fame. But it is not so much on his political sagacity and 
ability, or even on the eminent services he has rendered this 
nation, exceeding in intrinsic value, as we verily believe, all 
of his co-labourers and cotemporaries, that we rely ; we think 
he has greater claims than even these to greatness, and the 
love and veneration of mankind j and it is because these merits 
have been in a great measure overlooked, or not appreciated, 
that we close his revolutionary career somewhat abruptly, and 
leave untold many circumstances and details which are im- 
portant, and would tend greatly to add, if possible, to our 
respect for his character, were we not compelled, however 
reluctantly, to forego their narration. 

After the establishment of the independence of the United 
States of America, of the vigorous and successful exertions to 
attain which glorious object he had been the animating prin- 
ciple, soul, and support, feeling his exertions no longer requi- 
site here, he embarked for France, and arrived at Paris early 
in 1787, carrying with him his fame as a literary man, an 
acute philosopher, and a profound politician. He presented 
to the Academy of Sciences the model of a bridge which he 
invented, the principle of which is that on which most of the 
iron bridges have been constructed, and which has been since 
so highly celebrated and approved. After remaining in Paris 
a short time, he left for England, where he arrived on the 3d 
of September, just thirteen years after his departure for Phi- 
ladelphia. He then hastened to Thetford, to visit his mother, 
on whom he had settled a comfortable allowance, sufficient to 
maintain her, but of which she was some time after deprived 
by the bankruptcy of the merchant in whom the trust was 
vested. 

The publication of Burke's Reflections on the French Revo- 
lution produced, in reply from Mr. Paine, his great, univer- 
sally known, and justly celebrated work " Rights of Man." 
Vol. 1.— 3 



XXVI THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

This book made its appearance in London, in February, 1791, 
and many hundred thousand copies were rapidly sold. " On 
the first appearance of the Rights of Man," says Mr. Yale, 
the ministry of England " saw that it inculcated truths which 
they could not controvert, and that its principles were the 
reverse of the existing system of government; they therefore 
judged that the most politic method would be to treat the 
work with contempt, to represent it as a foolish and insignifi- 
cant performance, unworthy of the notice and undeserving the 
attention of the public." This mode of treatment proving 
inefficacious, as also a project to buy up the work, they deter- 
mined to punish the author and publisher. The publisher, 
Mr. Jordan, compromised the affair with the solicitor of the 
treasury, and after giving up the documents in his possession, 
prosecution was commenced against the author on the 21st 
of May, 1792. Paine was, when this prosecution was first 
contemplated, in 1791, in Paris, and he returned to London 
loth of July, with the view of meeting the proceedings which 
he expected to be instituted against him. He was at Paris at 
the time of the flight of the king, and also on his return. The 
Marquis La Fayette came into his bed-room one morning, 
before he had risen, and announced the flight, saying, " The 
birds are flown ;" to which Paine replied, iC 'Tis well ; I hope 
there will be no attempt to recall them." It docs not appear 
that any very decided steps were taken by the English govern- 
ment until the next year, 1792, when it was Mr. Paine's 
intention to have defended himself personally, but circum- 
stances, which occurred about two months previous to the 
trial, compelled his return to France. The department of 
Calais had elected him as their representative in the French 
National Convention. He proceeded to Dover, with the inten- 
tion of sailing for Calais, and after experiencing some disgrace- 
ful treatment from the government authorities, and well nigh 
escaping arrest, as an order to detain him arrived only twenty 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XXV11 

minutes after his departure, he succeeded in reaching the 
opposite coast at Calais, where his reception was as flattering 
and enthusiastic as at Dover it had been mean and disrespect- 
ful. Mr. Paine was likewise elected as deputy for Abbeville, 
Beauvais, and Versailles, as well as the department of Calais, 
but this distinction having been first awarded him by Calais, 
he preferred being their representative. On the road to Paris, 
for the purpose of taking his seat as a member of the Na- 
tional Assembly, he received much attention, and was, on his 
arrival in Paris, appointed a member of the committee for 
framing the new constitution. Mean time the trial of Mr. 
Paine came on in London, at Guildhall, before Lord Kenyon, 
and a verdict of guilty followed, almost as a matter of course. 
Mr. Erskine, afterwards Lord Erskine, was his counsel, and 
addressed the court in a speech of some hours. Mr. Paine 
remarked, on reading the report of the trial, that Erskine 
made a very good speech for himself, but that it was a very 
poor defence of the " Rights of Man." A number of per- 
sons were also fined and imprisoned for selling the work. 
Mean time, in the Convention at Paris, a strong party had 
gained the ascendancy who contended that Louis the 16th 
should be put to death, and Paine opposed the execution of 
the king in the most resolute and determined manner, con- 
tending "that the sentence, instead of an act of justice, would 
appear to all the world, and particularly to their allies, the 
American states, as an act of vengeance." The proceedings 
at the Convention assumed a darker and sterner character, 
but little in unison with Mr. Paine' s feelings and judgment. 
" I went," says he, " but little to the Convention, and then 
only to make my appearance j because I found it impossible 
to join in their tremendous decrees, and useless and dangerous 
to oppose them. My having voted and spoken extensively 
more than any other member against the execution of the king, 
"had already fixed a mark upon me.; neither dared any of my 



XXY111 THE LIFE OF THOMAS P.4INE. 

associates in the Convention to translate and speak in French 
for me anything I might have dared to write. Pen and ink 
were then of no use to me. No good could he done by writing, 
and no printer dared to print ; and whatever I might have 
written for my private amusement, as anecdotes of the times, 
would have been continually exposed to be examined, and tor- 
tured into any meaning that the rage of party might fix upon 
it; and as to softer subjects, my heart was in distress at the 
fate of my friends, and my harp was hung upon the weeping 
willows.'* 

Mr. Paine's gentle and conciliatory manners and conduct 
had long averted a catastrophe which seemed the natural 
result of his precarious position, but he was nevertheless ex- 
posed to considerable danger. The first attack was an act of 
the Convention which decreed that all persons in France, born 
in England, should be arrested and imprisoned. Mr. Paine, 
however, being a member of the Convention, and bearing the 
title of (i Citizen of France," escaped for the time, but when 
a motion was made by Bourdon de l'Oise for expelling foreign- 
ers from the Convention, an application was made to the two 
committees of " Public Safety," of which Robespierre was 
the dictator, and he was forthwith arrested under the decree 
for imprisoning persons born in England. The MS. of the 
" Age of Reason," First Part, he placed in the hands of Joel 
Barlow. He appeared to regard it, and justly so, as his most 
important work. He wished it to be a legacy to mankind, 
but the precarious state of affairs in France, and the uncer- 
tain tenure by which the most distinguished and disinterested 
patriots and friends of humanity held their lives at this time 
in France, admitted no farther delay. Mr. Paine had not 
finished his book six hours before he was arrested, and he was 
in almost daily expectation of being sent to the guillotine : so 
that his sincerity and truth cannot be disputed. He says : 
" The circumstances that have now taken place in France, of 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XXIX 

the total abolition of the whole national order of priesthood, 
and of everything pertaining to compulsive systems of religion, 
and compulsive articles of faith, has not only precipitated my 
intention, but rendered a work of this kind exceedingly neces- 
sary, lest, in the general wreck of superstition, of false sys- 
tems of government, and false theology, we lose sight of 
morality, of humanity, and of the theology that is true." 

When Mr. Paine had been in prison about three weeks, the 
Americans, residing in Paris, in a body demanded of the Conven- 
tion the release of their fellow-citizen. Their request was refused, 
and in a few days all communication was interdicted between 
the prisoners and their friends on the outside, without an espe- 
cial order, which could very rarely or never be obtained. In 
this gloomy and miserable condition, Mr. Paine continued for 
six months with scarcely a ray of hope, or the faintest expec- 
tation of escaping the fate of many of his friends, who were 
the daily victims of the Reign of Terror. He passed his sad 
and dreary hours as well as he was able, by writing many 
light, fugitive, fancy pieces, in verse and prose, and also in 
the Second Part of the Age of Reason. When he had been 
imprisoned about eight months, he was seized with a violent 
fever, which made him insensible for over a month; and 
although he felt the effects of the attack ever afterward, it is 
by no means improbable that it was the means of saving his 
life at the time, as the fall of Robespierre was the first thing 
he heard of at his recovery. He did not immediately regain 
his liberty, but upon memorializing Mr. Monroe, the American 
minister, who, however, had received no instructions from the 
United States government concerning him, he eventually ob- 
tained his release on the 4th of November, 1794, after being 
almost a year in confinement. Mr. Monroe kindly invited 
him to his house, where he remained for about eighteen 
months. The description of his situation whilst in prison, and 
his very narrow escape from the scaffold, will be interesting 
3* 



XXX THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 

to the readers. It is an extract from one of his letters, de- 
scriptive of the circumstances, to a friend : 

"I was one of the nine members that composed the first 
committee of constitution. Six of them have been destroyed; 
Sieves and myself have survived — he, by bending with the times, 
and I, by not bending. The other survivors joined Robespierre, 
and signed with him the warrant for my arrest. After the 
fall of Robespierre, he was seized and imprisoned in his turn, 
and sentenced to transportation. He has since apologized to 
me for having signed the warrant, by saying he was in dan- 
ger, and was obliged to do it. 

" Herault Sechelies, an acquaintance of Mr. Jefferson, and a 
good patriot, was my suppliant as a member of the committee 
of constitution; that is, he was to supply my place, if I had 
not accepted, or had resigned, being next in number of votes 
to me. He was imprisoned in the Luxembourg with me, was 
taken to the tribunal and the guillotine, and I, his principal, 
was left. 

" There were but two foreigners in the Convention, Ana- 
charsis Cloots and myself. We were both put out of the 
Convention by the same vote, arrested by the same order, and 
carried to prison together the same night. He was taken to 
the guillotine, and I was again left. Joel Barlow was with 
us when we went to prison. 

"Joseph Lebon, one of the vilest characters that ever exist- 
ed, and who made the streets of Arras run with blood, was my 
suppliant as member of the Convention for the department of 
the Pas de Calais. When I was put out of the Convention, he 
came and took my place. When I was liberated from prison, 
and voted again into the Convention, he was sent to the same 
prison, and took my place there, and he went to the guillotine 
instead of me. lie supplied my place all through. One hun- 
dred and sixty-eight persons were taken out of the Luxem- 
bourg in one night, and one hundred and sixty of them 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XXXI 

guillotiued the next day, of which I was to have been one ; 
but my escape is curious, and has all the appearance of acci- 
dent. 

" The room in which I was lodged was on the ground floor, 
and one of a long range of rooms under a gallery, and the 
door of it opened outward, and flat against the wall, so that 
when it was open the inside of the door appeared outward, 
and the contrary when it was shut. I had three comrades, 
fellow-prisoners with me, Joseph Yanhuile, of Bruges, since 
president of the municipality of that town, Michael Robins, 
and Bastine of Louvain. 

""When persons by scores and hundreds were to be taken 
out of prison for the guillotine, it was always done in the 
night, and those who performed that oflice had a private mark 
or signal by which they knew what rooms to go to, and what 
persons to take. We, as I have said, were four, and the door 
of our room was marked, unobserved by us, with that number 
in chalk ; but it happened that the mark was put on when the 
door was open and fiat against the wall, and thereby came on 
the inside when we shut it at night, and the destroying angel 
passed by it. A few days after this Robespierre fell, and the 
American ambassador arrived, reclaimed me, and invited me 
to his house. 

" During the whole of my imprisonment, prior to the fall 
of Robespierre, there was no time when I could think my life 
worth twenty-four hours, and my mind was made up to meet 
its fate. The Americans in Paris went in a body to the Con- 
vention to reclaim me, but without success. There was no 
party among them with respect to me. My only hope, then, 
rested on the government of America, that it would remember 
me. But the icy heart of ingratitude, in whatever man it 
may be placed, has neither feeling nor sense of honour. The 
letter of Mr. Jefferson has served to wipe away the reproach, 
and done justice to the mass of the people of America/' 



XXX11 THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

Mr. Paine, after leaving the house of the American minis- 
ter, lodged at M. Bonville's, associating with the great men 
of the day, Condorcet, Volney, Mercier, Barlow, &c, &c, and 
sometimes dining with Bonaparte and his generals. " When 
Bonaparte returned from Italy, he called on Mr. Paine, and 
invited him to dinner, and in the course of a rapturous ad- 
dress to him, declared that a statue of gold ought to be erected 
to him in every city in the universe, assuring him that he 
always slept with his book, Bights of Man, under his pillow, 
and conjured him to honour him with his correspondence and 
advice." Mr. Paine also amused himself with bridge and ship 
modelling, and in pursuing his favourite studies, mathematics 
and natural philosophy. " These models/' says a correspondent 
of that time, "exhibit an extraordinary degree not only of 
skill, but of taste in mechanics, and are wrought with extreme 
delicacy entirely by his own hands. The largest of these, the 
model of a bridge, is nearly four feet in height; the iron 
works, the chains, and every other article belonging to it, were 
forged and manufactured by himself. It is intended as the 
model of a bridge to be constructed across the Delaware, ex- 
tending four hundred and eighty feet, with only one arch. 
The other for a narrower river, and is likewise a single arch, 
and of his own workmanship, excepting the chains, which were 
cut out of pasteboard, by a lady. He was offered three thou- 
sand pounds for the models, and refused it. He also forged 
the model of a crane, of considerable merit." Mr. Clio Bich- 
man, who supplied the above information in regard to the 
pursuits of Mr. Paine, states that during this time he also 
published his " Dissertation on First Principles of Govern- 
ment," " Essay on Finance," his First and Second Parts of 
the "Age of Reason/' his Letter to Washington, his Address 
to the Theophilanthropists, Letter to Erskine, &c, &o. He 
has been much censured by sonic for his letter to Washing- 
ton ) but when it is considered the indifference evinced by 



THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. XXX1H 

Washington as to his safety in the moments of extreme peril, 
and this, notwithstanding the high opinion which he professed 
to entertain of his services in behalf of American independ- 
ence, we must admit that General Washington's behaviour, 
in this instance, reflects no honour on his character. We have, 
however, a clue to the whole matter, in the remarkable pru- 
dence which was so prominent a feature in Washington's 
character. This country was at that time a most religious 
country, and devoted entirely to the clergy. The publication 
of the Age of Reason had utterly destroyed all Paine's popu- 
larity, and the whole nation, led on by the clergy, were dis- 
posed Jo show him no quarter or favour. That Washington 
should interest himself in behalf of an individual so obnoxious 
to piety, and the universally prevailing fanaticism of the times, 
would be exposing the popularity of Washington's adminis- 
tration to more danger than was deemed desirable ; and he was 
left to the tender mercies of Robespierre, whose timely death, 
and not the interposition of Washington, saved him. "Not- 
withstanding this ingratitude, this country," he would say, 
" is the country of my heart, and the place of my political 
and literary birth. It was the American revolution made me 
an author, and forced into action the mind that had been dor- 
mant, and had no wish for public life, nor has it now." 
Wearied with the direction which affairs took in France, which, 
he used to say, " was the promised land, and not the land of 
promise," he had long sighod for his own dear America. He 
made many efforts to cross the Atlantic, but they were in- 
effectual. The American minister made choice of him to send 
despatches to his government, but he had been voted into the 
Convention again, and they only could grant a passport. 
During this delay, the opportunity was lost, perhaps fortu- 
nately, for an English frigate visited the vessel, and searched 
the ship, every part of it, for Thomas Paine. It was after- 
wards agreed he should come with Commodore Barney, in a 



XXXIV THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

vessel lie had engaged. Fortunately for him, something oc- 
curred to prevent it, for the vessel sunk at sea. The following 
extract will show the affectionate regard which he constantly 
cherished for the safety and freedom of the country whose 
affairs were the means of launching him into public life : 

" You touch me on a very tender point, when you say that 
my friends on your side of the water cannot be reconciled to 
the idea of my abandoning America, even for my native Eng- 
land. 

" A thousand years hence, — for I must indulge a few 
thoughts, — perhaps in less, America may be what England 
now is. The innocence of her character, that won the hearts 
of all nations in her favour, may sound like a romance, and 
her illimitable virtue as if it had never been. The ruins of 
that liberty which thousands bled to obtain, may just furnish 
materials for a village tale, or extort a sigh from rustic sensi- 
bility; while the fashionable of the daj r , enveloped in dissipa- 
tion, shall deride the principle and deny the fact. 

" When we contemplate the fall of empires, and the extinc- 
tion of the nations of the ancient world, we see but little more 
to excite our regret tban the mouldering ruins of pompous 
palaces, magnificent monuments, lofty pyramids, and walls 
and towers of the most costly workmanship; but when the 
empire of America shall fall, the subject for contemplative 
sorrow will be infinitely greater than crumbling brass or mar- 
ble can inspire. It will not then be said, Here stood a temple 
of vast antiquity, here rose a Babel of invisible height, or 
there a palace of sumptuous magnificence ; but here, ah ! pain- 
ful thought ! the noblest work of human wisdom, the greatest 
scene of human glory, the fair cause of freedom, rose and 
fell ! Read this, and then ask if I forgot America/' 

This was addressed, Mr. Yale tells us, to a lady of the 
name of Nicholson, who was afterwards married to Colonel 
Few. 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XXXV 

In July, 1802, when Mr. Jefferson was President, lie ad- 
dressed a letter to Mr. Paine, in which he thus expresses 
himself : 

" You express a wish, in your letter, to return to America 
by a national ship. Mr. Dawson, who brings over the treaty, 
and who will present you this letter, is charged with orders to 
the captain of the Maryland to receive and accommodate you 
hack, if you can be ready to return at such a short warning. 
You will, in general, find us returned to sentiments worthy of 
former times ; in these it will be your glory to have steadily 
laboured, and with as much effect as any man living. That 
you may live long to continue your useful labours, and reap 
the reward in the thankfulness of nations, is my sincere prayer. 
Accept the assurance of my high esteem and affectionate 
attachment. 

"Thomas Jefferson. 

"Washington, July, 1802." 

Mr. Paine was not able to avail himself of this vessel, as 
the notice was too short. He went to Havre, but there were 
several British frigates cruising in sight, which delayed him, 
and finally he embarked on the 1st of September, and landed 
in Baltimore on the 30th October, 1802. 

His arrival in the United States could not fail to create 
considerable sensation, which he thus describes, in a letter to 
his friend, Clio Bichman, who, it appears, took leave of him 
at Havre, previous to his departure : 

" My dear Friend, — Mr. Monroe, who is appointed minister 
extraordinary to France, takes charge of this, to be delivered 
to Mr. Este, banker in Paris, to be forwarded to you. 

"I arrived at Baltimore 30th October, and you can have 
no idea of the agitation which my arrival occasioned. From 



XXXVI THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

New Hampshire to Georgia (an extent of fifteen hundred 
miles), every newspaper was filled with applause or abuse. 

" My property in this country has been taken care of by 
my friends, and is now worth -six. thousand pounds sterling ; 
which, put in the funds, will bring me four hundred pounds 
sterling per year. 

" Remember me, in friendship and affection, to your wife 
and family, and in the circle of our friends. 
" Yours, in friendship, 

"Thomas Paine." 

Mr. Paine continued but a short time in Baltimore; but 
during his brief stay, it is related of him that he was accosted 
by a Mr. Hargrove, who, addressing him, said : " You are Mr. 
Paine ?" " Yes." " My name is Hargrove, sir ; I am min- 
ister of the New Jerusalem church, here. We, sir, explain 
the Scripture in its true meaning. The key has been lost above 
four thousand years, and we have found it." " It must have 
been very rusty," said Paine, dryly. 

He visited Washington, and was kindhv received by Presi- 
dent Jefferson, with whom he kept up a constant correspond- 
ence to the day of his death. He had invited Paine's return 
to the United States, and said, "When he arrives, if there 
be an office in my gift suitable for him to fill, I will give it to 
him. I will never abandon old friends to make room for new 
ones." Mr. Paine had, however, in a letter to his friend, 
Clio Richman, expressed his determination not to take office. 
"I have," said he, "no occasion to ask, nor do I intend to 
accept, any office or place in the government." He soon after 
went to New York, and put up at the City Hotel, where 
Grant Thorburn, who is the author of several scurrilous libels 
in regard to him, went to see him. Grant Thorburn is, how- 
ever, too well known for his mercenary time-serving, and 
above all, foi his peculiar church-going piety, to be very reliable 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XXXVU 

authority. He says, in his pamphlet; that his only object in 
visiting Mr. Paine, was to see the man who had written Com- 
mon Sense, and having gratified his curiosity, he abruptly 
retired. Thorbura was, says Mr. Yale, a professor of reli- 
gion, and held some office in a Baptist church. We had always 
supposed, from reading Lawrie Todd, that he was one of the 
bluest kind of Presbyterians. However, the Baptists are not 
much inferior in their rigid, savage piety, for Mr. Thorburn's 
fellow-members, hearing that he had ventured to shake hands 
with Mr. Paine, thought proper to suspend him from tta 
church on that account, although there is little doubt but that 
he amply redeemed his lost character in the estimation of his 
pious brethren, by the reviling, contumely, and slanders he 
so unsparingly has heaped upon Mr. Paine's reputation. It 
indeed appeared to be an established system or policy, on the 
part of the Christian community, to defame him; and Chris- 
tian doctrines were demonstrated and clearly proved, beyond 
all controversy, by the simple assertion that Paine was a bad 
man, and certainly drank more than was becoming. Even 
the truth and divinity of the Bible is clearly established by 
such kind of logic, or reasoning, as is remembered in a late 
discussion between Dr. Berg and Mr. Barker. To Mr. Barker's 
attacks on the teachings and character of the Bible, it was 
deemed quite satisfactory and conclusive to oppose a letter of 
Carver's, written against Paine, in a petulant humour, and 
when wrought upon and instigated by Cheetham, his most 
virulent enemy. Mr. Grant Thorburn republished this letter 
in his " Forty Years' Residence," and Carver replies, and 
thus endeavours to excuse himself for writing it : " When I 
first read the Life of Grant Thorburn, I made this remark, 
and wrote it on the cover of his book : I have read this Life 
of Grant Thorburn. I presume a great part of which it is 
composed has no more connexion with his life than mine, or 
the Pope of Home, to wit, the corresponding letters between 
Vol. 1.— 4 



XXXV111 THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. 

Thomas Paine and myself, and those letters I have cut out of 
his book. Those letters were first printed by Cheetham ; with- 
out my consent, for base purposes, after he became a tory, and 
a hypocritical turncoat, like Grant Thorburn, who has now 
reprinted them for the same purpose. They were written by 
me and Paine, in anger. Mr. Paine had boarded with me 
without any regular agreement, and we quarrelled about the 
bill, what has happened a thousand times to other people. He 
wrote angrily, and I angrily replied. But the affair was set- 
tled amicably by Walter Morton and John Fellows. I think 
some things Paine said of me were not in earnest, and I an- 
swered in anger. The letters should have been burnt. But 
Cheetham said many things of Paine that were not true. I 
told him ' I believed he had had his hand crossed with Bri- 
tish gold/ "When Paine was on his death-bed I wrote him 
the following letter. This shows what opinion I had of him. 
I think him one of the greatest men that ever lived." 

" Dear Sir, — I have heard that you are much indisposed in 
health, and that your mind, at present, is not reconciled to me. 
Be that as it may, I can assure you that, on my part, I bear 
no ill will, but still remain your sincere w^l-wisher. I am 
still a zealous supporter and defender of the principles that 
you have advocated, believing that they are founded on im- 
mortal truth and justice ; therefore I think it a pity that you 
or myself should depart this life with envy in our hearts 
against each other, and I firmly believe that no difference would 
have taken place between us, had not some of those of your 
pretended friends endeavoured to have caused a separation of 
friendship between us. 

" I want, sir, nothing of you or from you, but only that the 
ignorant and superstitious herd may not have it in their power 
to exclaim and say, that Thomas Paine or Carver died with- 
out a reconciliation with each other. I have often told my 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. XXXIX 

friends, if I were on my dying bed I should send for you, hoping 
that all our differences might he buried in oblivion before our 
bodies were buried in the grave, as I hope that ray dying pil- 
low may not be planted with thorns. I consider that time 
with me is short, and perhaps shorter with you. If I never 
should see you again in this world, I wish you all the conso. 
lation that your great mind is capable of enjoying, and that 
you may resign yourself with full confidence on your Maker, 
and leave a noble testimony to the world of the independency 
of your mind, and honesty of your heart; and this, my friend, 
will produce to you more comfort than all the prayers of all 
the priests in the Christian world. 

" Yours, in friendship, 

"We Carver." 

These last letters and explanations of the circumstances 
under which Carver addressed Paine, and the acknowledgment 
of the injustice which he had done to his character, and his 
profound respect and regard for him notwithstanding, as well 
as adherence to his principles — " I think him one of the great- 
est men that ever lived" — not one syllable of all this was 
elicited from Christian candour, fairness, or integrity. The 
Rev. Dr. Berg read, on the occasion we have before alluded to, 
passages from Carver's former letters, dwelling upon, empha- 
sizing, and commenting on all the points that were of a vitu- 
perative character, which was received with a perfect yell of 
delight and exultation by the amiable, Christian, and pious 
portion of the audience, who hailed all these scurrilities and 
slanders as a triumphant refutation of Infidelity, and above 
all, as clear, incontestable, and demonstrable proof of the divi- 
nity, truth, and authority of the Bible. " Is it possible," was 
the natural reflection of thousands of men of intelligence, who 
had scarcely before given these matters more than a passing 
thought, and received all that had been taught them from the 



Xl TEE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

pulpit as acknowledged and established truth, u . Is it possible 
that Christianity and the Bible have nothing higher, better, 
or more of the nature of logic or reason to sustain them ? 
What matters it to us if Paine was .a bad man ? it is his book, 
his arguments, his reasoning we have to do with, and they 
have to do with. Why do they not reply to his writings? 
There surely must be something in them — something very 
powerful — something beyond their skill, learning, wit, or ability, 
or they would do so." Such was the very natural result of 
the reflections of men of intelligence, when once their atten- 
tion was excited, or brought to bear upon the subject. 

The compiler of these Memoirs being surrounded by pious 
influences, and having undoubted trust and confidence in 
clerical teachings, yet could not, at all times, resist the obtru- 
sion of some doubts and misgivings upon some points in refer- 
ence to these so-called sacred truths. We could do no less 
than have recourse to the best and most approved Christian 
authors, to satisfy our scruples. Among the rest was Bishop 
Watson, who attempts a reply to Paine, undoubtedly the best 
and most argumentative, as well as gentlemanly in style and 
character, which has ever been written. Unfortunately for 
the Bishop, he states his opponent's arguments (at least some 
of them), and then gives his answer. The following argument 
of Paine's appeared to us. even as imperfectly stated 03- the 
Bishop, to be utterly beyond all the skill or capability of the 
Bishop to furnish a natural or satisfactory reply to ; and yet 
it must be evident that this argument, if it cannot be answer- 
ed, is fatal to ail the claims of ltevelation. We have copied 
it out, and presented it to many clergymen of reputation, and 
entreated them to take it into their pulpits with them, to look 
at it attentively, examine it thoroughly, and if they have half, 
or even a thousandth part of the affection with which they 
pretend to regard the souls of men, to confute it thoroughly. 
It has never once been attempted — who ; ainongst the clergy, 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. xll 

dare hope of success, when so great a man as the Bishop of 
Llandaif has so signally failed ? 

" Every national church or religion has established itself 
by pretending some special mission from God, communicated 
to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses ; the 
Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles, and saints; and 
the Turks their Mahomet, as if the way to God was not open 
to every man alike. 

" Each of these churches show certain books, which they 
call Revelation, or the Word of God. The Jews say that their 
Word of God was given by God to Moses, face to face. The 
Christians say, their Word of God came by divine inspira- 
tion ) and the Turks say that their Word of God (the Koran) 
was brought by an angel from heaven. Each of those churches 
accuse the other of unbelief; and, for my own part, I disbe- 
lieve them all. 

" As it is necessary to affix right ideas to words, I will, be- 
fore I proceed further into the subject, offer some other obser- 
vations on the word Revelation. Revelation, when applied 
to religion, means something communicated immediately from 
God to man. 

u No one will dispute or deny the power of the Almighty 
to make such a communication, if he pleases. But admitting, 
for the sake of the case, that something has been revealed to . 
a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is 
revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second 
person, a second to a third, and a third to a fourth, and so on, 
it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revela- 
tion to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and 
consequently they are not obliged to believe it. 

" It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything 

a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally 

or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first 

communication ; after this it is only an account of something 

4* 



Xlii THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 

which that parson says was a revelation made to him, and 
though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be 
incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner; for it was 
not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it 
that it was made to him. When Moses told the children of 
Israel that he received the two tables of the commandments 
from the hands of God, they were not obliged to believe him, 
because they had no other authority for it than his telling 
them so, and I have no other authority for it than some his- 
torian telling me so. The commandments carry no internal 
evidence of divinity with them. They contain some good 
moral precepts, such as any man, qualified to be a lawgiver, 
or legislator, could produce himself, without having recourse 
to any supernatural intervention. 

" When I am told that the Koran was written in heaven, 
and brought to Mahomet by an angel, the account comes too 
near the same kind of hearsay evidence and second-hand 
authority as the other. I did not see the angel myself, and 
therefore I have a right not to believe it. 

" When also I am told that a woman, called the Virgin 
Mary, said, or gave out, that she was with child, without any 
cohabitation with a man, and that her betrothed husband, 
Joseph, said that an angel told him so, I have a right to be- 
lieve them or not; such a circumstance required a much 
stronger evidence than their bare word for it; but we have 
not even this, for neither Joseph nor Mary wrote any such 
matter themselves; it is only reported by others that they 
said so. It is hearsay upon hearsay, and I do not choose to 
rest my belief upon such evidence. " 

It is admitted by the Bishop at once, that revelation, under 
such circumstances, is not revelation to us — it is simple testi- 
mony; and he then claims our belief on the ground of this 
testimony being accompanied with miracles; but independent 
of the clear and evident insufficiency of miracles being proof 



THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. xliil 

of anything, except some extraordinary and concealed power 
in the performer of them — yet we have the same objection 
to tkem as to Revelation ; they are not performed before our 
eyes; we are not spectators j they' rest entirely on hearsay tes- 
timony, which may or may not be true, and most probably is 
not. They are at best but paper miracles, of which any one 
at all imaginative can manufacture any number required. The 
fact is that Mr. Paine's book, the "Age of Reason," is a 
masterpiece of clear, simple, honest argument. The main scope 
of it is of that conclusive character as to convince at once the 
man of integrity, the honest and disinterested inquirer after 
truth. There is no special pleading, no prevarication, no beg- 
ging the question; all is fair and aboveboard; it comes home 
to the bosom of the true-hearted, and you feel the sincerity, 
the integrity, the thorough honesty of the author. That the' 
priesthood should decline entering the lists with such a book 
is but to be expected. What would the most labyrinthine web 
of sophistry that was ever woven avail against such an antago- 
nist ? There was but one way to meet him, and the clergy 
have availed themselves of it with an energy, an industry, and 
zeal worthy of a better cause. They have assailed his cha- 
racter — they fairly covered him up, overwhelmed with a huge 
mountain of calumnies, almost buried him out of sight. So 
untiring have been their exertions, so fertile have been their 
inventions, so thoroughly and completely have they enveloped 
him in the hideous disguise with which they have surrounded 
him, that even his friends, and those who knew him best, 
almost began to imagine that instead of the good and the 
great, the intellectual, and the noble, and the disinterested 
man whom they had respected so much, and regarded so 
highly, that he was so depraved and corrupt as to be only de- 
serving of universal detestation and abhorrence. 

In the case of Paine, we have the best illustration ever sub- 
mitted to the world of the efficacy and sagacity of that piece 



xliv THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

of advice which has passed into a proverb, as to the dealing 
with an antagonist : " When you are unable to answer the 
arguments of a man, assail his character. " To have answered 
Paine with anything at all approaching argument, or analytical 
reasoning, would have been positive insanity. The clergy felt 
their utter incompetency, but it was necessary to do some- 
thing; the craft was in danger; the axe was laid to the root 
of the whole system of priestcraft. Othello's occupation looked 
very much like passing away for ever, and the holy and reve- 
rend gentlemen bestirred themselves accordingly; and if there 
is any merit in untiring industry, and unwearied and the most 
strenuous and indefatigable exertions in a bad cause, the clergy 
are fairly entitled to it. The law was invoked in England, 
and the most stringent measures resorted to against the sellers, 
the readers, and even the possessors of the Age of lleason ; 
whilst here, in our land, pious execrations and fulminations 
the most vindictive issued from every pulpit, and the unfor- 
tunate individual that had read Paine's writings, and had 
begun to think there was some little truth or good sense in his 
reasoning, if he dared to express such an opinion, lost his 
caste in society, was ostracised by his fellow-citizens, and 
his very name cast out as evil. It is not a little amusing to 
have observed with what an affectation of contempt the clergy 
treated Paine's reasoning. It was too scurrilous, too puerile 
to require notice; "it had been answered a thousand times j" 
although the when, or the where, or by whom, they have never 
yet condescended to inform us. 

One part of Paine's character the reverend gentlemen dwelt 
upon with great satisfaction — he was a drunkard — and drunk- 
enness was a most hateful vice. It was altogether impossible 
that a drunkard could form any correct opinions upon any 
subject; they must, of necessity, be worthless. It was edify- 
ing in the extreme to hear the loathsome, the hateful vice of 
drunkenness inveighed against in the pulpit. How debasing 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. xlv 

to the character — how ruinous to the constitution — what fearful 
consequences attended such depravity — and then Paine was ex- 
hibited as a striking illustration. The clergy made considerable 
capital out of this slander; and so industriously was such a no- 
tion circulated, that even his friends and admirers thought there 
must be some truth in the report, particularly as Paine lived 
in an intemperate age. Hospitality, even amongst the most 
reputable people, consisted in drinking to excess; and no 
class of persons indulged to greater extent than the very reve- 
rend clergy themselves. Perhaps, even at the present day, 
there are few persons but believe there must be some founda- 
tion for such a charge which we have even lately heard reite- 
rated from the pulpit by several clergymen, u vile and loath- 
some inebriate ;" and upon one occasion the congregation, if 
they had any doubts upon the matter, were referred to one 
Mr. Bruin, a gentleman of wealth and influence, in the city 
of Philadelphia, who was resident in Paine's immediate neigh- 
bourhood in the city of New York, previous to Mr. Paine's 
decease. 

Mr. Bruin we deemed it a matter of importance to visit, in 
company with a friend, and were received by him with polite- 
ness, and in a gentlemanly manner. He is a very venerable 
gentleman, intelligent, but strongly imbued with religious 
prejudices. He had seen Paine often, thought him somewhat 
in destitute circumstances, made some effort to relieve him. 
But his sympathies were most excited by his religious senti- 
ments, which he supposed to be attended with such fearful 
consequences ; that he had called at Mr. Paine's lodgings re- 
peatedly, accompanied by . a pious minister, with a view of 
talking to him, but Mr. Paine refused, and sometimes with 
considerable asperity, to have anything to say to them on such 
subjects. We inquired particularly as to Mr. Paine's intem- 
perance. He had never seen him in that condition, had never 



Xlvi THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. 

heard such were his habits ; nor any report of that nature con- 
cerning him. 

We have pursued our inquiries in other quarters, and have 
gleaned some information from other sources ; and although, 
to use a vulgar expression, we were impressed with the opinion 
that where there was so much smoke there must be some fire, 
yet without going to the extent of exalting Mr. Paine above 
humanity, and altogether incapable of weakness or frailty, yet 
we feel quite disposed to acquit him of this charge, and give 
the entire credit, merit, and all that pertains to the framing 
of this count in the bill of indictment against him, to the 
reverend clergy, as the sole manufacturers, contrivers, and 
inventors. 

There was another charge against him, which, as it impli- 
cated the reputation of a lady, it was deemed due to her to 
vindicate before the legal tribunals of his country, which was 
effected most triumphantly, and to the complete discomfiture 
of his base and cowardly accuser. 

When Mr. Paine arrived in America, he invited over Mr. 
and Mrs. Bonneville, and their children. At Bonneville's 
house at Paris, he had for years found a home, a friendly shel- 
ter, when the difficulty of getting supplies of money from 
Ameri-ca, and other and many ills, assailed him. Bonneville 
and his family were poor, and sunk in the world. Mr. Paine, 
therefore, though he was not their inmate without remunera- 
tion, offered them in return an asylum with him in America. 
Mrs. Bonneville and her three boys, to whom he was a friend 
during his life and at his death, soon joined him at New York. 
If any part can be marked out as infamous and wicked, it 
is Cheetham's suggestion upon this just and generous conduct 
of Mr. Paine's to the Bonneville family. But although the 
clergy endorsed this slander, and piously and industriously 
circulated it to the best of their ability, yet the chief conspi- 
rator having been prosecuted, somewhat deterred the rest from 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. xlvii 

tlie liberal use which they would otherwise have been glad to 
make of this foul calumny. As to other traits in his cha- 
racter, it is scarcely worth the attention or severe scrutiny 
which is necessary to redeem him altogether from the load of 
obloquy which had been east upon him. Mr. Yale seems to 
have taken considerable pains in the investigation, and is so 
very strict in his impartiality that he chronicles his infirmities 
with great scrupulosity. He tells us of his writing his fool- 
ish angry letter to Carver ; that he was to some extent 
penurious in his old age; that in sickness he was sometimes 
peevish and angry. " These are all," he says, " the personal 
blemishes we can discover, and these are counterbalanced by 
the most noble and social qualities. He had a heart to feel 
for the distresses of mankind, and a head to conceive the 
means of relief. The charge of Madame Bonneville and 
family was at once an act of justice, generosity, and grati- 
tude. Mr. Paine had every prominent virtue, and to these 
he added the most social qualities. He was in public, with- 
out being a great talker, cheerful, communicative, abounding 
in information and anecdote, and in private not less agreea- 
ble." Mr. Yale also speaks of his morals and decorum, his 
love of truth, and utter abhorrence of falsehood and prevari- 
cation. His inquiries among his friends and associates all 
result in the entire acquittal of the charge of drunkenness. 
Mr. Lovett, of the City Hotel (where Paine was boarding), 
declares he drank less than any other of his boarders ; 
and Mr. Jarvis, the eminent artist, and a man of very supe- 
rior talents, with whom he was upon terms of the greatest 
possible intimacy to the close of his life, avers that Mr. Paine 
did not, could not drink much. Mr. Yale justly observes, 
"that the subject is puerile in itself; were there not a host 
who sincerely believe Mr. Paine to have been a drunkard or 
a sot, others of more liberal minds would at once have per- 
ceived that he who possessed all his faculties to an advanced 



Xlviii THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

age unimpaired, could not commonly indulge in such gross 
excesses." "How, then/' continues Mr. Vale, "are we to 
regard this slander, its circulation, its reiteration, the boldness 
of the assailants and the variety of forms it assumed, from 
the pulpit, the press, in prints and in private, from mouth to 
mouth, till its very friends were deceived, as we were when we 
commenced this investigation V' What now is the secret cause 
of slander, but the desire to check the influence of an individual, 
or his writings ? Could the "Age of Reason" and the "Rights 
of Man" have been replied to as he replied to Burke, we 
should never have heard these slanders. But why did the 
slanderers fix on the minor vice of inebriety ? It is clear that 
there was no pretence for other vices. " What an amalgama- 
tion do the slanderers of Paine present ! The young girl, of 
pious education, vociferating the filthy, drunken Tom Paine ; 
the pious teacher, perhaps also deceived, but without exami- 
nation, preaching from the pulpit that the opponent of the 
gospel scheme lived and died a degraded drunken being. To 
these are added the arch hypocrite, who knows the slander, 
but from interested motives joins the bitter cry of Tom Paine 
and inebriety. To these, again, are added the thousands of 
decent people of all religions, who, finding it fashionable to 
pronounce the name of Paine with a sneer, generously believe 
what everybody says ; and these add their mite of slander, 
making in the aggregate a mountain. But to these also must 
be added the politician, the sneaking, artful man, who could 
not afford to lose a vote, and who, conscious of the contrary, 
chimes in with the pious, and pronounces Tom Paine as 
drunken and dirty, being willing to believe what he wishes to 
be true, as an excuse for himself, and an assurance that the 
speaker, the politican, is neither sot, drunkard, nor infidel. 
The mass have sought to overwhelm the name of Paine by 
associating it with intoxication, for which there is not a shadow 
of proof. If, now, we push back the slander, on whom does 



THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. xlix 

it rest ? Are the sincere justified, because of their sincerity, 
in propagating slander ? Is it in accordance with their reli- 
gion ? It is evident it exists, and with religion the most sin- 
cere. It exists with the ministers of religion, some of whom 
were sincere, but ignorant, others not sincere, but interested ; 
but the whole body were contaminated, ministers and people, 
by circulating slander. This, then, was the visible religion 
Mr. Paine would have uprooted, while the political tyrants 
and sycophants, who joined the crusade from the basest of 
motives, — and they have now their representatives, — but ill 
contrast in sentiment and feelings with the noble principles of 
the man whose fame they would suppress. ( The world my 
country, to do good my religion/ were the sublime sentiments 
of this sincere and able advocate of human rights, whose fair 
fame has been thus abused." 

"We have transcribed the foregoing remarks of Mr. Yale's 
as exceedingly just and pertinent, and as expressing, better than 
we otherwise can, the state of affairs in America, and the 
feelings and dispositions of the people in regard to him. 

Neglected by his former friends and associates, who prefer- 
red the countenance of the clergy, and the good-will of the 
community, to vindicating the character and reputation of a 
man to whom they were so deeply indebted, and bound by 
every tie of gratitude, respect, and good-will ; with the popu- 
lar voice almost unanimously exclaiming, " Crucify him, cru- 
cify him ;" it cannot be supposed but that such an unexpected 
and undeserved reception as he experienced in this country, 
must have affected his health and spirits in no small measure. 
To meet with reproach, neglect, contumely, and seorn, where 
he expected, and had a right to expect, a nation's gratitude, 
and a universal testimony of affectionate remembrance, was, 
to say the least, trying circumstances to be placed in. It 
was in vain that a few attached and sincere friends attempted 
to stem the current of popular prejudice, by the inquiry of 

Vol. I.— 5 



I THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

" What evil hath he done ?" The only result was precisely as in 
the well-remembered case alluded to — they cried out so much 
the more, " Crucify him, crucify hint." A short time pre- 
vious to his leaving France for this country, he wrote to a 
friend, describing his health as excellent, and his strength 
unimpaired, and yet he lived not much above six years after 
his return to this country ; and the probability is, that disap- 
pointment, neglect, and ingratitude were not without their 
natural effects, and that, under more favourable circumstances, 
his life would have been materially prolonged. As it is not- 
our purpose to chronicle the petty annoyances he received 
from malevolence, fanaticism, and ignorance, we shall omit 
much that might perhaps be interesting, so far as to show the 
intolerant age in which he lived, and the very amiable cha- 
racter of the religion and people whom he had served, and 
who requited him with such baseness and ingratitude. It is 
probable that history has no corresponding example of any 
man being treated with so much injustice. Cheetham's book 
was got up for the express and avowed purpose of defaming 
him ; and the pious lie in relation to Mrs. Bonneville, as well 
as a letter manufactured for the same purpose, containing 
much pious twaddle, and attempting to convey the idea of 
Mr. Paine's change of sentiments and recantation in the pros- 
pect of death, are all described as meritorious, by Judge Hoff- 
man, who presided at the trial of Cheetham for libel. The 
tendency, he said, was to serve the cause of religion ; as if that 
could possibly be a good cause which could employ such base, 
foolish, wicked, and dishonourable means to promote its ends 
and purposes. 

And now calumny, misrepresentation, slander, and ingrati- 
tude had done its work, and Mr. Paine, wearied and wi^» 
alike in mind and body, was descending, step after il)p f 
to the narrow house appointed for all living. He had litt] i to 
live for, and nothing to hope for — and so he died. A few 



THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. ll 

attached friends remained, who duly appreciated his character, 
and valued him accordingly. They soothed his dying pillow, 
and attended him to the last. He was, like Voltaire, pestered 
continually with priests of various denominations, who, hear- 
ing of his sickness, and the small probability there was of his 
recovery, endeavoured to obtain admittance, with the hope 
of extorting from the dying man, thus stretched on the rack 
of nature, some faint acknowledgment of something which 
might be construed into a confession of the truth or excel- 
lency of Christianity, not that they were very scrupulous, in 
the absence of evidence, of inventing something which would 
answer their purpose, as the letter of Dr. Manly, and other 
pious legends, which are too ridiculous to contest, and even to 
relate, and are only suited to the meridian of the shallow- 
pated and superstitious fanatics for whose benefit they were 
manufactured. 

Among the few friends who firmly adhered to Mr. Paine to 
the last, was an artist of great celebrity, knowledge of the 
world, and discernment- — Mr. Jarvis. He was almost his con- 
stant attendant, and he bears most ample testimony to Mr. 
Paine' s moral worth, and scrupulous integrity of character. 
He relates many anecdotes concerning some of these pious 
intruders, who were accustomed to haunt Mr. Paine, and 
invade his premises, for the amiable purpose of expressing 
their holy horror and indignation at his sentiments. 

He usually took a nap after dinner, and would not be dis- 
turbed, let who would call upon him. One afternoon, a very 
old lady, dressed in a large scarlet-hooded cloak, knocked at 
the door, and inquired for Mr. Thomas Paine. Mr. Jarvis 
told her he was asleep. " I am very sorry for that," she said. 
" for I want to see him particularly." Thinking it a pity to 
make an old woman call twice, Mr. Jarvis took her into Mr. 
Paine's bed-room, and awoke him. He rose upon one elbow; 
then, with an expression of eye that made the old woman 



ill THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 

stagger back a step or two, he asked, " What do you want ?" 
"Is your name Paine ?" "Yes." "Well, then, I am come 
from Almighty Glod, to tell you that if you do not repent of 
your sins, and believe in our blessed Saviour, Jesus Christ, 

you will be damned, and " " Poh, poh, it is not true ; 

you were not sent with any such impertinent message. Jar- 
vis, send her away. Pshaw ! he would not send such a foolish, 
ugly old woman about with his messages. G-o away — go back, 
and shut the door." The old lady retired, in considerable 
consternation, and raising both her hands, walked away with- 
out saying another word. 

We have a recollection of reading an account of two Catho- 
lic priests, whom Mr. Paine had been induced to permit access 
to him, thinking that they had some medical skill which might 
be serviceable. They appeared, however, to be as ignorant 
and fanatical as their Protestant brethren; and when they 
began to denounce Mr. Paine's sentiments in the canting and 
usual formula, and predict for him all sorts of suffering in 
another world, as the penalty of his belief, or want of belief, 
his patience was exhausted at their impertinence, and he would 
desire them to be gone without further delay. 

In the spring of 1807, Mr. Paine, then in his seventieth 
year, and but two years before his death, removed to Broome 
street, New York, where he lived some time. There he pub- 
lished his examination of the passages in the New Testament, 
quoted from the Old, and called Prophecies of Jesus Christ, 
&c, &c. It is undoubtedly a work of great merit, and indi- 
cates an honest and laborious examination of the Scriptures. 
Mr. Yale says Paine's Bible had every mark of being most 
carefully read, and annotations and notices might be seen in 
every page. Probably no man ever read, or so thoroughly 
understood, the merits of the book as Paine. 

Mr. Paine lived afterwards in Partition street, and then in 
Greenwich street. But his sickness increasing, Madame Bon- 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. ltii 

neville took a small house in Columbia, now Grove street, 
where she attended him to his death, which must have hap- 
pened in about a month afterwards. He was perfectly con- 
scious of his approaching dissolution, and endeavoured to 
arrange for his burial in the Quaker's burying-ground, but his 
request was denied. 

We are also informed that about two weeks before his death, 
he was visited by a Presbyterian minister, of some reputation, 
of the name of Milledollar, as also another reverend gentle- 
man, of the name of Cunningham. Mr. C, addressing him, 
said, " Mr. Paine, we visit you as friends and neighbours. 
You have now a full view of death. You cannot live long, 
and whoever does not believe in Jesus Christ will assuredly 
be damned." " Let me," said Paine, " have none of your 
popish stuff; get away with you. Good morning, good 
morning." Mr. Milledollar attempted to address him, but he 

s repulsed in similar language. When they were gone, he 
aid to Mrs. Hedden, his housekeeper, " Do not let them come 
here again; they intrude upon me." They soon renewed 
their visit, but Mrs. Hedden told them they could not be ad- 
mitted, and that she thought the attempt useless, for if God 
did not change his mind, she was sure no human power could. 
They therefore retired. 

In his last moments he was very anxious to die, and also 
solicitous about his place of burial ; for as he was completely 
unchanged in his theological sentiments, he would on no ac- 
count, even after death, countenance ceremonies he disap- 
proved, containing doctrines and expressions of belief which 
he conscientiously objected to, and which he had spent great 
part of his life in combating. 

He requested to see Mr. Willet Hicks, a member of the 
Society of Friends, who called on him, in accordance with his 
desire and invitation. 
5* 



llV THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

Mr W. Hicks bears ample testimony to Mr. Paine's senti- 
ments having undergone no change previous to his death, he 
having had a long conversation with him but a very short 
time before, in which he was assured that Mr. Paine's senti- 
ments respecting the Christian religion were now precisely 
the same as when he wrote the x\ge of Reason. 

We might multiply testimony to the same effect, were it 
needful, to almost any extent, but we content ourselves with 
communicating a statement of Mr. Yale's, in regard to an in- 
terview which he had with a Mr. Amasa Yfoodsworth, who 
lived next door to Mr. Paine at the time of his death, who 
was accustomed to visit him every day for the last six weeks 
before his death, frequently sat up with him, and did so on 
the last two n >ghts of his life. He speaks very decidedly in 
regard to there being no change in the opinions of Mr. Paine 
previous to his death; and even his enemy, James Cheetham, 
describing his death, says, " On the 8th day of June, 18-09, 
about nine in the morning, he placidly, and almost without a 
struggle, died as he had lived, an enemy to the Christian reli- 
gion, aged seventy-two years and five months." 

It is thus abundantly evident that to the last moment of 
his life he retained the same opinions on religious matters 
which he had previously advocated with so much perseverance 
and ability. Christians are very fond of remarking that such 
doctrines utterly fail to sustain the man in nature's last sad 
conflict; that religious dogmas and superstitions become evi- 
dent truths in prospect of death, although in seasons of health 
and vigour they with perversity or blindness had been rejected 
and despised. Mr. Paine, however, exhibited not a particle 
of such kind of weakness, or any misgiving as to the truth of 
the opinions he had published to the world; although every 
effort was made, and in tbe most unscrupulous manner, to 
obtain from him some acknowledgment which might bear some 
such construction. His friend, Clio E,ichman ; remarks, in 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. lv 

relation to this change of opinion in dying persons, " Why 
so much consequence should be attached to what is called a 
recantation in man's last moments, of a belief or opinion held 
through life, — : a thing I never witnessed, nor knew any one 
who did, — it is difficult to say, at least with any credit, to 
those who harp so much upon it. A belief or an opinion is none 
the less true or correct, even if it be recanted, and I strenu- 
ously urge the reader to reflect seriously how few there are 
who really have any fixed belief and conviction through life, 
of a metaphysical or religious nature, and not only how few 
there are who really have any fixed belief, or devote any time 
to such investigation, but who are not the creatures of form, 
education, and habit, and take upon trust tenets, instead of 
inquiring into their truth and rationality. Indeed, it appears 
that those who are so loud about the recantation of philoso- 
phers, are neither religious, moral, nor correct themselves, and 
exhibit not in their own lives either religion in belief, or prin- 
ciple in conduct/' 

Mr. Paine not only held his opinions firmly and unshaken 
to the last, notwithstanding the unkind teasing and obtrusive 
tormenting of his Christian acquaintance, but it appears, from 
his " Age of Reason/' that the same or similar anti-christian 
principles obtained their ascendancy in his mind when a mere 
child. He says : " From the time I was capable of receiving 
an idea, and acting upon it by reflection, I either doubted the 
truth of the Christian system, or thought it to be a strange 
affair, I scarcely knew which it was; but I well remember, 
when about seven years of age, hearing a sermon read by a 
relation of mine, who was a great devotee of the church, upon 
the subject of what is called ' Redemption by the death of 
the Son of God.' 

" After the sermon was ended, I went into the garden, and 
as I was going down the garden steps, I revolted at the recol- 



lvi THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

lection of what I heard. It was to me a serious reflection, 
arising from the idea I had, that G-od was too good to do such 
an action, and also too almighty to be under any necessity of 
doing it. I believe in the same manner to this moment. And 
I moreover believe that any system of religion that has any- 
thing in it that shocks the mind of a child, cannot be a true 
system/' 

Mr. Clio Richman further remarks, in relation to the works 
of Mr. Paine, from which we have taken the above extract, 
" We see through different mediums, and in our pursuits and 
experience are unlike. How others have felt, after reading 
maturely the ' Age of Reason' and the f Rights of Man/ and 
pursuing fairly, coolly, and assiduously the subjects therein 
treated, I leave to them ; but for myself, I must say, these 
works carried perfect conviction to my mind, and the opinions 
they contain are fully confirmed by much reading, by long, 
honest, unwearied investigation and observation." 

Soon after Mr. Paine's death, the following character of 
him and his writings appeared in a London newspaper, writ- 
ten by a gentleman well acquainted with him and them : 

" He was, in his youth, of a strong resolution and constant 
temper. He had, from almost his infancy, adopted the opi- 
nions he so successfully promulgated in his manhood. All 
his literary productions evince an acute, profound, and deter- 
mined mind. His language is simple and nervous, adapted to 
all capacities,- and so pointed and unequivocal that there is no 
misconceiving it. He is sententious, his axioms are incon- 
trovertible and self-evident, and their impressions are indelible. 
No human being's efforts have done more for liberty. He has 
made more converts than Sydney and Russell. His l Common 
Sense' enfranchised America. America was divided between 
two parties; the arguments of this little pamphlet decided the 
contest. His glorious Rights of Man had nearly a similar 



THE LIFE OF. THOMAS PAINE. lvii 

effect in England. Innumerable replies have been made 
against it, but so weak and futile as to injure the cause they 
were meant to sustain. He reasoned from facts, and his dic- 
tion was irresistible. He pours down like a torrent, and bears 
everything before him. He was prosecuted for his works, but 
they were so admired that they were in every library. He 
seemed stern and morose, but he was lenient, friendly, and 
benevolent. He instanced his humanity by his resolute vote 
to save the King of France, and the sanguinary Robespierre 
never forgave him, and in the Reign of Terror imprisoned 
him; but this apostle of liberty, though in such imminent 
danger, never retracted his opinions, nor implored mercy. It 
pleased Providence he should escape this monster. Bold, 
manly, and fearless, he never concealed his sentiments; posi- 
tive and inflexible, they never varied, being founded on con- 
viction and true principle. He remained at Paris long after 
Bonaparte rendered himself supreme in the State, and spoke 
as free as ever. In 1802, he departed from Paris for his ad- 
mired America, the only true birth-place of liberty, where he 
finished his days in 1809, June 8, at New York, aged seventy- 
three — 

' His ashes there, 
But his fame everywhere.' " 

The day after the death of Mr. Paine, he was taken from 
his house in New York, to his farm at New Rochelle, attended 
by a few friends, and was there buried. He died worth con- 
siderable property, as appears by his will, and by no means 
in that abject distress and destitution which the Christian 
community and his remorseless and unscrupulous calumniators 
would fain make us believe, as part of the just judgment of 
Almighty God upon him, for his rejection of the popular 
religion. A plain stone was erected to his memory, with the 
following inscription : — 



Iviii THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 

THOMAS PAINE, 

Author op Common Sense, 

Died June 8, 1809, 

Aged seventy-two years and five months. 

This stone has, since its erection, suffered much injury, 
partly by want of care, partly by the dilapidations of time, 
and the violation it sustained at the hands of Mr. Cobbett, 
who carried the remains of Mr. Paine to England. Subse- 
quently it has been replaced by a monument, of which the 
vignette on our title-page is a representation. The monument 
is a handsome marble structure, the work of the eminent 
sculptor, Mr. Frazee, and cost somewhere about thirteen hun- 
dred dollars, the contribution of various friends, who thus 
manifested their respect for Mr. Paine's labours, his character, 
and memory. 

TVe publish below a true copy of the will we have alluded 
to, which we hope will be gratifying to our readers : 

THE WILL OP MR. THOMAS PAINE. 

" The People of the State of New York, by the Grace of God, 
Free and Independent, to all to whom these presents shall 
come or may concern, Send Greeting : 

Know ye, That the annexed is a true copy of the will of 
Thomas Paine, deceased, as recorded in the office of our 
surrogate, in and for the city and county of New York. In 
testimony whereof, we have caused the seal of office of our 
said surrogate to be hereunto affixed. Witness, Silvanus 
Miller, Esq., surrogate of said county, at the city of New 
York, the twelfth day of July, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and nine, and of our independence 
the thirty-fourth. 

Silvanus Miller. 



THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. lix 

The last will and testament of me, the subscriber, Thomas 
Paine, reposing confidence in my Creator God, and in no 
other being, for I know of no other, nor believe in any other, 
I Thomas Paine, of the state of New York, author of the 
work entitled < Common Sense/ written in Philadelphia, in 

1775, and published in that city the beginning of January, 

1776, which awaked America to a Declaration of Indepen- 
dence on the fourth of July following, which was as fast as 
the work could spread through such an extensive country; 
author also of the several numbers of the ' American Crisis/ 
' thirteen in all/ published occasionally during the progress of 
the revolutionary war — the last is on the peace ; author also 
of the * Rights of Man/ parts the first and second, written 
and published in London, in 1791 and ; 92 ; author also of a 
work on religion, ' Age of Reason/ parts the first and second. 
' N. B. I have a third part by me in manuscript, and an an- 
swer to the Bishop of Landaff / author also of a work, lately 
published, entitled ? Examination of the Passages in the New 
Testament quoted from the Old, and called Prophesies con- 
cerning Jesus Christ/ and showing there are no prophesies of 
any such person ; author also of several other works not here 
enumerated, < Dissertations on the first Principles of Govern- 
ment/ — ' Decline and Fall of the English System of Finance/ 
— i Agrarian Justice/ &c, &c, make this my last will and 
testament, that is to say : I give and bequeath to my execu- 
tors hereinafter appointed, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis 
Emmet, thirty shares I hold in the New York Phcenix Insur- 
ance Company, which cost me 1470 dollars, they are worth 
now upward of 1500 dollars, and all my movable effects, and 
also the money that may be in my trunk or elsewhere at the 
time of my decease, paying thereout the expenses of my 
funeral, in trust as to the said shares, movables, and money, 
for Margaret Brazier Bonneville, wife of Nicholas Bonneville, 
of Paris, for her own sole and separate use, and at her own 



IX THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

disposal, notwithstanding her coverture. As to my farm m 
New Rochelle, I give, devise, and bequeath the same to my 
said executors, Walter Morton and Thomas Addis Emmet, 
and to the survivor of them, his heirs and assigns for ever, in 
trust, nevertheless, to sell and dispose of the north side there- 
of, now in the occupation of Andrew A. Dean, beginning at 
the west end of the orchard, and running in a line with the 

land sold to Coles, to the end of the farm, and to apply 

the money arising from such sale as hereinafter directed. I 
give to my friends Walter Morton, of the New York Phoenix 
Insurance Company, and Thomas Addis Emmet, counsellor- 
at-law, late of Ireland, two hundred dollars each, and one 
hundred dollars to Mrs. Palmer, widow of Elihu Palmer, late 
of New York, to be paid out of the money arising from said 
sale, and I give the remainder of the money arising from that 
sale, one-half thereof to Clio Rickman, of High or Upper 
Mary-la-bone street, London, and the other half to Nicholas 
Bonneville, of Paris, husband of Margaret B. Bonneville 
aforesaid : and as to the south part of the said farm, contain- 
ing upward of one hundred acres, in trust, to rent out the 
same or otherwise put it to profit, as shall be found most ad- 
visable, and to pay the rents and profits thereof to the said 
Margaret B. Bonneville, in trust for her children, Benjamin 
Bonneville and Thomas Bonneville, their education and main- 
tenance, until they come to the age of twenty-one years, in 
order that she may bring them well up, give them good and 
useful learning, and instruct them in their duty to God, and 
the practice of morality, the rent of the land or the interest 
of the money for which it may be sold, as hereinafter men- 
tioned, to be employed in their education. And after the 
youngest of the said children shall have arrived at the age of 
twenty-one years, in further trust to convey the same to the 
said children share and share alike in fee-simple. But if it 
shall be thought advisable by my executors and executrix, or 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. Ixi 

the survivor or survivors of them, at any time before the 
youngest of the said children shall come of age, to sell and 
dispose of the said south side of the said farm, in that case I 
hereby authorize and empower my said executors to sell and 
dispose of the same, and I direct that the money arising from 
such sale be put into stock, either in the United States' Bank 
stock or New York Phoenix Insurance Company stock, the 
interest or dividends thereof to be applied as is already 
directed, for the education and maintenance of the said child- 
ren j and the principal to be transferred to the said children 
or the survivor of them on his or their coming of age. I 
know not if the society of people called Quakers admit a per- 
son to be buried in their burying-ground, who does not belong 
to their society, but if they do or will admit me, I would pre- 
fer being buried there, my father belonged to that profession, 
and I was partly brought up in it. But if it is not consistent 
with their rules to do this, I desire to be buried on my farm 
at New Rochelle. The place where I am to be buried to be 
a square of twelve feet, to be enclosed with rows of trees, and 
a stone or post and railed fence, with a head-stone with my 
name and age engraved upon it, author of f Common Sense/ 
I nominate, constitute, and appoint Walter Morton, of the 
New York Phoenix Insurance Company, and Thomas Addis 
Emmet, counsellor-at-law, late of Ireland, and Margaret B. 
Bonneville, executors and executrix to this my last will and 
testament, requesting them the said Walter Morton and Tho- 
mas Addis Emmet, that they will give what assistance they 
conveniently can to Mrs. Bonneville, and see that the children 
be well brought up. Thus placing confidence in their friend- 
ship, I herewith take my final leave of them and of the world. 
I have lived an honest and useful life to mankind; my time 
has been spent in doing good; and I die in perfect composure 
and resignation to the will of my Creator God. Dated this 
eighteenth day of January, in the year one thousand eight 
6 



lxii THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 

hundred and nine, and I have also signed my name to the 
other sheet of this will in testimony of its being a part 
thereof. Thomas Paine, (l. s.) 

Signed, sealed, published, and declared by the testator, in 
our presence, who, at his request, and in the presence of each 
other, have set our names as witnesses thereto, the words 
1 published and declared' first interlined. 

William Keese, 
9 James Angevine, 

Cornelius Ryder/' 



THOMAS PAINE S DEATH-BED. 

"We have just returned from Boston. One object of our 
visit to that city was to see a Mr. Amasa Woodsworth, an 
engineer, now retired in a handsome cottage and garden at 
East Cambridge, Boston. This gentleman owned the house 
rented by Mrs. Bonneville for Mr. Paine at his death ; while 
he lived next door. As an act of kindness, Mr. Woodsworth 
visited Mr. Paine every day for six weeks before his death ; 
he frequently sat up with him, and did so on the last two 
nights of his life. He was always there with Dr. Manley, 
the physician, and assisted in removing Mr. Paine, while his 
bed was prepared : he was present when Dr. Manley asked Mr. 
Paine ' if he wished to believe that Jesus Christ was the Son 
of God V and he describes Mr. Paine's answer as animated. 
He says, that lying on his back, he used some action, and 
with much emphasis replied, ' I have no wish to believe on 
that subject/ He lived a short time after this, but was not 
known to speak, for he died tranquilly. He accounts for the 
insinuating style of Dr. Mauley's letter, by stating that that 
gentleman, just after its publication, joined a church. He 



THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. lxiii 

informs us that he has openly reproved the doctor for the 
falsity contained in the spirit of that letter, boldly declaring 
before Dr. Manley, who is yet living, that nothing which he 
saw justified his (the doctor's) insinuations. Mr. Woodsworth 
assures us that he neither heard nor saw anything to justify 
the belief of any mental change in the opinions of Mr. Paine 
previous to his death ; but that being very ill, and in pain, 
chiefly arising from the skin being removed in some parts by 
long lying, he was generally too uneasy to enjoy conversation 
on abstract subjects. This, then, is the best evidence that 
can be procured on this subject, and we publish it while the 
contravening parties are yet alive, and with the authority of 



"In reviewing the life of Mr. Thomas Paine, we can see 
no defect in his public character. He was a citizen of the 
world, and served its interests to the best of his abilities, 
which were great. i Where liberty is, that is my country/ 
said Dr. Franklin. Mr. Paine replied, * Where liberty is not, 
that is my country/ in reference to his exertions for liberty 
in the United States, England, and France. Paine wrote for 
mankind, and he may be emphatically styled ' the friend of 
man/ Here he was a good citizen, and a firm supporter of 
the government ; because that government is based upon the 
rights of man, with the exception of the recognition of slavery 
in the southern states, unfortunately engrafted on the commu- 
nity before the war of independence. Whatever may be the 
opinion of Mr. Paine's theological works, his honesty in pub- 
lishing them cannot be doubted by any impartial reader. He 
believed those opinions true, and he believed the truth useful 
to mankind; while his especial object was to establish a reli- 
gious principle in France, then becoming atheistical. The 
best argument in support of deism is to be found in the first 



lxiv THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 

part of the l Age of Reason/ In this view of the subject, 
Mr. Paine ought to have been taken by the hand by every 
believer in the existence, wisdom, power, and goodness of 
one Supreme God, the Maker and Sustainer of the Uni- 
verse." 



MONUMENT TO THOMAS PAINE. 

On the fourth of July, 1837, we visited the tomb, or place 
of burial of Thomas Paine, near New Rochelle, and in the 
Beacon of July 15, 1837, thus described it (see Beacon, Yol. 
L, p. 331) :— 

" The tomb is close by the road-side, but over a stone fence, 
and now consists of a low, broken, rough, dry stone wall, of 
oblong shape, of about eight by four feet, with loose stones, 
grass and earth in the centre ; the upright slab simply marked 
with 

1 THOMAS PAINE, AUTHOR OF COMMON SENSE/ 

no longer exists. After Gobbett violated the grave, and re- 
moved the bones from the remains of Mr. Paine, the head- 
stone was broken, and pieces successively removed by different 
visiters : one large fragment was preserved by a lady in an 
opposite cottage, in which Mr. Paine had sometimes boarded, 
and in which Mr. and Madame Bonneville afterward boarded; 
but this fragment gradually suffered diminution, as successive 
visiters begged a piece of what they could no longer steal. 
To preserve the last remnant, this lady has had it plastered up 
in a wall. 

We discovered that the lady mentioned, the nearest neigh- 
bour to the tomb, would be favourable to the repair of the 
tomb, and we learned that she believed that such repairs 
would be popular among the neighbours ; and on this under- 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. lxV 

standing, in which we have not been deceived, we determined 
to commence a subscription to repair the tomb, or put up a 
monument; and before we left the village we obtained from 
Mr. James, who had then marble saw-mills in New Rochelle, 
a promise to be at the expense of putting up a heavy block of 
marble, instead of a head-stone, if purchased by subscription. 
Subsequently Mr. Frazee, an eminent architect, offered, in 
conjunction with some friends, to give the work on a monu- 
ment if the materials were procured, and other expenses paid. 
This has now been accomplished, and paid for. The monu- 
ment stands on the Paine Farm, at the head of the grave, on 
twenty feet square, enclosed by a substantial wall on three 
sides, and an iron railing in front (not yet up, March, 1841.) 
It is built of the marble of the country, and is valued at 
about thirteen hundred dollars. The following extract from 
a letter from the architect will best describe the monument, 
and the feelings of the neighbourhood, which is two miles from 
the village of New Eochelle. — G. v." 

"New York, Nov. 12, 1839. 
" To Mr. Yale : 

"Will you please to inform our friends that the monument 
to Thomas Paine is erected ? On Friday last I took with me 
a rigger, and went up to the quarries, and on that day we got 
the marble to the spot, with the machinery and other appa- 
ratus necessary to the work. At an early hour, on Saturday 
morning, we mustered all hands at the grave, and commenced 
the erection of the monument in good earnest, and in good 
spirits. Everything worked well, and at three o'clock p. m. 
the crown-piece was on, and the erection complete. No per- 
son was hurt, nor any part of the work broken or injured. 
The people up there say it is a chaste and beautiful structure. 
Its purely Grecian character and simplicity of form render its 
general effect truly impressive and interesting. The summit 
6* 



Ixvi THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. 

is twelve and a half feet above the level of the road, at that 
point. 

"I was much pleased to find that, among the number of 
fifty persons and more that were assembled to witness our 
labours, not an unkind look was seen, nor an unfriendly ex- 
pression heard, during the time. All looked and spake as 
though their hearts were glad at seeing such marked regard, 
such noble and lasting honour paid to the great patriot of 
our revolution, and the defender of the rights of man. 

" I have a little trimming to do yet on the head, which will 
occupy me the best part of a day ) this I will endeavour to 
accomplish this week, when the monument will be completed. 
" Very truly yours, 

"John Frazee." 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. lxvii 

LETTER FROM JOEL BARLOW TO JAMES CHEETHAM. 

" Sir — I have received your letter, calling for information 
relative to the life of Thomas Paine. It appears to me that 
this is not the moment to publish the life of that man in this 
country. His own writings are bis best life, and these are not 
read at present. 

The greatest part of the readers in the United States will 
not be persuaded, as long as their present feelings last, to con- 
sider him in any other light than as a drunkard and a deist. 
The writer of his life who should dwell on these topics, to 
the exclusion of the great and estimable traits of his real 
character, might, indeed, please the rabble of the age who do 
not know him ; the book might sell ; but it would only tend 
to render the truth more obscure for the future biographer 
than it was before. 

" But if the present writer should give us Thomas Paine 
complete in all his character, as one of the most benevolent 
and disinterested of mankind, endowed with the clearest per- 
ception, an uncommon share of original genius, and the great- 
est breadth of thought; if this piece of biography should 
analyze his literary labours, and rank him, as he ought to be 
ranked, among the brightest and most undeviating luminaries 
of the age in which he has lived — yet, with a mind assailable 
by flattery, and receiving through that weak side a tincture 
of vanity which he was too proud to conceal ; with a mind, 
though strong enough to bear him up, and to rise elastic 
under the heaviest load of oppression, yet unable to endure 
the contempt of his former friends and fellow-labourers, the 
rulers of the country that had received his first and greatest 
services — a mind incapable of looking down with serene com- 
passion, as it ought, on the rude scoffs of their imitators, a 
new generation that knows him not; a mind that shrinks from 
their society, and unhappily seeks refuge in low company, or 



lxviii THE LIFE OE THOMAS PAINE. 

looks for consolation in the sordid, solitary bottle, till it sinks 
at last so far below its native elevation as to lose all respect 
for itself, and to forfeit that of his best friends, disposing these 
friends almost to join with his enemies, and wish, though from 
different motives, that he would haste to hide himself in the 
grave. If you are disposed and prepared to write his life thus 
entire, to fill up the picture to which -these hasty strokes of 
outline give but a rude sketch, with great vacuities, your book 
may be a useful one for another age, but it will not be relished, 
nor scarcely tolerated in this. 

" The biographer of Thomas Paine should not forget his 
mathematical acquirements, and his mechanical genius. Bis 
invention of the iron bridge, which led him to Europe, in the 
year 1787, has procured him a great reputation in that branch 
of science, in France and England, in both which countries 
his bridge has been adopted in many instances, and is now 
much in use. 

" You ask whether he took an oath of allegiance to France ? 
Doubtless the qualification to be a member of the convention 
required an oath of fidelity to that country, but involved in it 
no abjuration of his fidelity to this. He was made a French 
citizen by the same decree with Washington, Hamilton, Priest- 
ley, and Sir James Mackintosh. 

" What Mr. M has told you relative to the circum- 
stances of his arrestation by order of Robespierre, is erroneous, 
at least in one point. Paine did not lodge at the house where 
he was arrested, but had been dining there with some Ameri- 
cans, of whom Mr. M may have been one. I never 

heard before that Paine was intoxicated that night. Indeed, 
the officers brought him directly to my house, which was two 
miles from his lodgings, and about as much from the place 
where he had been dining. He was not intoxicated when 
they came to me. Their object was to get me to go and as- 
sist them to examine Painc's papers. It employed us the rest 



THE LIFE OF THOMAS PAINE. kix 

of that night and the whole of the next day, at Paine's lodg- 
ings ; and he was not committed to prison till the next evening. 

" You ask, what company he kept ? He always frequented 
the best, both in England and France, till he became the 
object of calumny in certain Ameriean papers (echoes of the 
English court papers), for his adherence to what he thought 
the cause of liberty in France, till he conceived himself 
neglected and despised by his former friends in the United 
States. From that moment he gave himself very much to 
drink, and, consequently, to companions less worthy of his 
better days. 

"It is said he was always a peevish inmate — this is possible. 
So was Lawrence Sterne, so was Torquato Tasso, so was J. J. 
Rousseau ; but Thomas Paine, as a visiting acquaintance and 
as a literary friend, the only points of view in which I knew 
him, was one of the most instructive men I ever have known. 
He had a surprising memory, and brilliant fancy ; his mind 
was a storehouse of facts and useful observations ; he was full 
of lively anecdote, and ingenious original pertinent remark 
upon almost every subject. 

" He was always charitable to the poor beyond his means, a 
sure protector and friend to all Americans in distress that he 
found in foreign countries. And he had frequent occasions 
to exert his influence in protecting them during the revolution 
in France. His writings will answer for his patriotism, and 
his entire devotion to what he conceived to be the best interest 
and happiness of mankind. 

" This, sir, is all I have to remark on the subject you men- 
tion. Now, I have only one request to make, and that would 
doubtless seem impertinent were you not the editor of a news- 
paper. It is, that you will not publish my letter, nor permit 
a copy of it to be taken. " I am, sir, &c, 

"Joel Barlow. 

Kalorama, August 11, 1809. " 



lxx THE LIFE OP THOMAS PAINE. 



EPITAPH 

FOR THE TOMB OP 

THOMAS PAINE. 

WRITTEN BT A FRIEND. 

Here moulders, in this dusk abode, 
One who to faith no homage showed i 
By moral law his life he tried, 
While social duty was his guide, 
And pure philanthrophy the end 
Of all he did, or could intend. 

Prayer he pronounced impiety, 
Vain prompter of divine decree : 
That oft implores, with erring zeal, 
For boons subversive of its weal : 
Yet he retained a grateful sense 
Of bountiful Omnipotence ; 
Nor blushed with reverence to own, 
That blessings sprang from God alone. 

Thus unappall'd, he sunk to rest, 
To rise, or lie, as Heaven thought best ; 
Yet future hope he did not waive, 
Nor mercy for transgressions crave, 
The God who gave him life, will save. 



MISCELLANEOUS 



THEOLOGICAL WORKS 



THOMAS PAINE, 



(71) 



LETTER 

TO THE HON. T. ERSKINE, 
ON THE PROSECUTION OF THOMAS WILLIAMS 



FOR PUBLISHING 



THE AGE OF REASON. 



INTRODUCTION. 

It is a matter of surprise to some people to see Mr. Erskine 
act as counsel for a crown prosecution commenced against the 
right of opinion : I confess it is none to me, notwithstanding 
all that Mr. Erskine has said before ; for it is difficult to know 
when a lawyer is to be believed ; I have always observed that 
Mr. Erskine, when contending as a counsel for the right of 
political opinion, frequently took occasions, and those often 
dragged in head and shoulders, to lard what he called the 
British Constitution, with a great deal of praise. Yet the 
same Mr. Erskine said to me in conversation, were government 
to begin de novo in England, they never would establish such 
a damned absurdity (it was exactly his expression) as this is. 
Ought I then to be surprised at Mr. Erskine for inconsistency ? 

In this prosecution Mr. Erskine admits the right of contro- 
versy ; but says the Christian religion is not to be abused. 
This is somewhat sophistical, because, while he admits the 
right of controversy, he reserves the right of calling that con- 
troversy, abuse : and thus, lawyer-like, undoes by one word 
what he says in the other. I will, however, in this letter keep 
within the limits he prescribes ; he will find here nothing about 
the Christian religion : he will find only a statement of a few 
cases, which shows the necessity of examining the books, 
handed to us from the Jews, in order to discover if we have 
not been imposed upon ; together with some observations or 
the manner in which the trial of Williams has been conducted. 
If Mr. Erskine denies the right of examining those books, he 
had better profess himself at once an advocate for the establish- 
ment of an Inquisition, and the re-establishment of the Star 
Chamber. Thomas Paine. 

7 (73) 



LETTER * &c. 



Of all the tyrannies that afflict mankind, tyranny in religion 
is the worst : Every other species of tyranny is limited to the 
world we live in ; but this attempts a stride beyond the grave, 
and seeks to pursue us into eternity. It is there and not here 
— it is to God and not to man — it is to a heavenly and not to 
an earthly tribunal that we are to account for our belief; if 
then we believe falsely and dishonourably of the Creator, and 
that belief is forced upon us, as far as force can operate by 
human laws and human tribunals, — on whom is the criminal- 
ity of that belief to fall ? on those who impose it, or on those 
on whom it is imposed ? 

A bookseller of the name of Williams, has been prosecuted 
in London on a charge of blasphemy, for publishing a book 
entitled the Age of Reason. Blasphemy is a word of vast 
sound, but equivocal and almost indefinite signification, unless 
we confine it to the simple idea of hurting or injuring the 
reputation of any one, which was its original meaning. As a 
word, it existed before Christianity existed, being a Greek 
word, or Greek anglofied, as all the etymological dictionaries 
will show. 

But behold how various and contradictory has been the sig- 
nification and application of this equivocal word. Socrates, 
who lived more than four hundred years before the Christian 
era, was convicted of blasphemy, for preaching against the be- 
lief of a plurality of gods, and for preaching the belief of one 
God, and was condemned to suffer death by poison. Jesus 

* Mr. Paine has evidently incorporated into this letter a portion of 
his answer to Bishop Watson's " Apology for the Bible ;" as in a sub- 
sequent chapter of that work, treating of the book of Genesis, he ex- 
pressly refers to his remarks, in a preceding part of the same, on the 
two accounts of the creation contained in that book ; which is inclu- 
ded in this letter. 

(74) 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 75 

Christ was convicted of blasphemy under the Jewish iaw, and 
was crucified. Calling Mahomet an impostor would be blas- 
phemy in Turkey ; and denying the infallibility of the Pope 
and the Church would be blasphemy at Rome, What then is 
to be understood by this word blasphemy ? We see that in 
the case of Socrates truth was condemned as blasphemy. Are 
we sure that truth is not blasphemy in the present day ? Woe, 
however, be to those who make it so, whoever they may be. 

A book called the Bible has been voted by men, and de- 
creed by human laws, to be the word of God ; and the disbe- 
lief of this is called blasphemy. But if the Bible be not the 
word of God, it is the laws and the execution of them that is blas- 
phemy, and not the disbelief. Strange stories are told of the 
Creator in that book. He is represented as acting under the 
influence of every human passion, even of the most malignant 
kind. If these stories are false, we err in believing them to 
be true, and ought not to believe them. It is therefore a duty 
which every man owes to himself, and reverentially to his 
Maker, to ascertain, by every possible inquiry, whether there 
be sufficient evidence to believe them or not. 

My own opinion is decidedly, that the evidence does not 
warrant the belief, and that we sin in forcing that belief upon our- 
selves and upon others. In saying this, I have no other object 
in view than truth. But that I may not be accused of resting 
upon bare assertion with respect to the equivocal state of the 
Bible, I will produce an example, and I will not pick and cull 
the Bible for the purpose. I will go fairly to the case : I will 
take the two first chapters of Genesis as they stand, and show 
from thence the truth of what I say, that is, that the evidence 
does not warrant the belief that the Bible is the word of God. 



CHAPTER I. 

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 

2 And the earth was without form and void, and darkness 
was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God moved 
upon the face of the waters. 

3 And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. 
4. And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divi- 
ded the light from the darkness, 



70 LETTER TO MR. ERSKLNE. 

5 And God called the light day, and the darkness he called 
night : and the evening and the morning were the first day. 

6 ^[ And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst 
of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters 
which were under the firmament, from the waters which were 
above the firmament : and it was so. 

8 And God called the firmament heaven ; and the evening 
and the morning were the second day. 

9 ^f And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be 
gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear : 
and it was so. 

10 And God called the dry land earth, and the gathering 
together of the waters called he seas ; and God saw that it was 
good. 

11 And God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb 
yielding seed, and the fruit-tree yielding fruit after his kind, 
whose seed is in itself, upon the earth ; and it was so. 

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding 
seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed 
was in itself, after his kind : and God saw that it was good. 

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day. 

14 ^[ And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament 
of the heaven, to divide the day from the night : and let them 
be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years. 

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the 
heaven, to give light upon the earth : and it was so. 

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to 
rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night : he made 
the stars also. 

17 And God set them in the firniauient of the heaven, to 
give light upon the earth, 

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to 
divide the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was 
good. 

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly 
the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly 
above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. 

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature 
that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly after 



I 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 77 

their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind ; and God 
saw that it was good. 

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multi- 
ply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in 
the earth. 

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day. 

24 ^f And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living 
creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast 
of the earth after his kind : and it was so. 

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and 
cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the 
earth after his kind ; and God saw that it was good. . 

26 *|f And God said, Let us make man in our image, after 
our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the 
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over 
all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon 
the earth. 

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of 
God created he him : male and female created he them. 

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be 
fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the, earth, and subdue 
it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the 
fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon 
the earth. 

29 \ And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb 
bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and 
every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed : to you 
it shall be for meat. 

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of 
the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, 
wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat : 
and it was so. 

31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold 
it was very good. And the evening and the morning were 
the sixth day. 



CHAPTER II. 

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the 
host of them. 

7* 



78 LETTER TO MR. EESKINE. 

2 And on the seventh day God ended his work which he 
had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work 
which he had made. 

3 And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it : be- 
cause that in it he had rested from all his work, which God 
created and made 

4 ^[ These are the generations of the heavens and of the 
earth, when they were created ; in the day that the Lord God 
made the earth and the heavens, 

5 And every plant of the field, before it was in the earth, 
and every herb of the field, before it grew ; for the Lord God 
had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a 
man to till the ground. 

6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered 
the whole face of the ground. 

7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man be- 
came a living soul. 

8 And the Lord God planted a garden eastward of Eden ; 
and there he put the man whom he bad formed. 

9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every 
tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food ; the tree 
of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of know- 
ledge of good and evil. 

10 And a river went out of Eden to water the garden : and 
from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. 

11 The name of the first is Pison : that is it which com- 
passeth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 

12 And the gold of that land is good : there is bdellium 
and the onyx-stone. 

13 And the name of the second river is Gihon : the same is 
it that compasseth the the whole land of Ethiopia. 

14 And the name of the third river is Hiddekel : that is it 
which goeth toward the cast of Assyria. And the fourth river 
is Euphrates. 

15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the 
garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 

16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of 
every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat : 

17 But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE, 79 

not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou 
shalt surely die. 

18 Tf And the Lord God said, It is Dot good that the man 
should be alone : I will make him an help meet for him. 

19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every 
beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them 
unto Adam, to see what he would call them j and whatsoever 
Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 

20 And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of 
the air, and to every beast of the field ; but for Adam there 
was not found an help meet for him. 

21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon 
Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed 
up the flesh instead thereof. 

22 And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, 
made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bone, and flesh 
of my flesh ; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken 
out of man. 

24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, 
and shall cleave unto his wife ; and they shall be one flesh. 

25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and 
were not ashamed. 



These two chapters are called the Mosaic account of the 
creation ; and we are told, nobody knows by whom, that Moses 
was instructed by God to write that account. 

It has happened that every nation of people has been world- 
makers ; and each makes the world to begin his own way, as 
if they had all been brought up, as Hudibras says, to the 
trade. There are hundreds of different opinions and traditions 
how the world began.* My business, however, in this place, 
is only with those two chapters. 

* In this world-making trade, man, of course, has held a con- 
spicuous place ; and, for the gratification of the curious inquirer, the 
editor subjoins two specimens of the opinions of learned men, in re- 
gard to the manner of his formation, and of his subsequent fall. The 
first he extracts from the Talmud, a work containing the Jewish tra- 
ditions, the rabbinical constitutions, and explication of the law ; and 



80 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

I begin then by saying, that those two chapters, instead of 
containing, as has been believed, one continued account of the 
creation, written by Moses, contain two different and contra- 
dictory stories of a creation, made by two different persons, 
and written in two different styles of expression. The evi- 
ls of great authority among the Jews. It was composed by certain 
learned rabbins, comprehends twelve bulky folios, and forty years are 
said to have been consumed in its compilation. In fact, it is deemed 
to contain the ichole body of divinity for the Jewish nation. Although 
the Scriptures tell us that the Lord God formed man of the dust of the 
ground, they do not explain the manner in which it was done, and 
these doctors supply the deficiency as follows : — 

"Adam's body was made of the earth of Babylon, his head of the 
land of Israel, his other members of other parts of the world. R. 
Meir thought he was compact of the earth, gathered out of the whole 
earth ; as it is written, thine eyes did see my substance. Now it is else- 
where written, the eyes of the Lord are over all the earth. R. Aha 
expressly marks the twelve hours in wh"ch his various parts were 
formed. His stature was from one end of the world to the other; and 
it was for his transgression that the Creator, laying his hand in anger 
on him, lessened him ; for before, says R. Eleazer, with his hand he 
reached the firmament. R. Jehuda thinks his sin was heresy ; but R. 
Isaac thinks it was nourishing his foreskin." 

The Mahometan savans give the following account of the same 
transaction : 

" When God wished to create man, he sent the angel Gabriel to take 
a handful of each of the seven beds which composed the earth. But 
when the latter heard the order of God, she felt much alarmed, and 
requested the heavenly messenger to represent to God, that as the 
creature he was about to form might chance to rebel one day against 
him, this would be the means of bringing upon herself the divine 
malediction. God, however, far from listening to this request, 
despatched two other angels, Michael and Azrael, to execute his will ; 
but they, moved with compassion, were prevailed upon again to lay 
the complaints of the earth at the feet of her author. Then God 
confined the execution of his commands to the formidable Azrael 
alone, who, regardless of all the earth might say, violently tore 
from her bosom seven hanifuls from her various strata, and carried 
them into Arabia, where the work of creation was to be completed. 
As to Azrael, God was so well pleased with the decisive manner in 
which he had acted, that he gave him the office of separating the soul 
frem the body, whence he is called the Angel of Death. 

'• Meanwhile, the angels having kneaded this earth, God moulded it 
with his own hands, and left it some time that it might get dry. The 
angels delighted to gaze upon the lifeless, but beautiful mass, with the 
exception of Eblis, or Lucifer, who, bent upon evil, struck it upon 
the stomach, which giving a hollow sound, he said, since this creature 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 81 

dence that shows tbis is so clear when attended to without 
prejudice, that, did we meet with the same evidence in any 
Arabic or Chinese account of a creation, we should not hesi- 
tate in pronouncing it a forgery. 

I proceed to distinguish the two stories from each other. 
• The first story begins at the first verse of the first chapter, 
and ends at the end of the third verse of the second chapter ; 
for the adverbial conjunction, THUS, with which the second 
chapter begins (as the reader will see), connects itself to the 

will be hollow, it will often need being filled, and ■will be, therefore, 
exposed to pregnant temptations. Upon this, he asked the angels 
how they would act if God wished to render them dependent upon 
this sovereign which he was about to give to the earth. They readily 
answered that they would obey ; but although Eblis did not openly 
dissent, he resolved within himself that he would not follow their 
example. 

"After the body of the first man had been properly prepared, God 
animated it with an intelligent soul, and clad him in splendid and 
marvellous garments, suited to the dignity of this favoured being. 
He now commanded his angels to fall prostrate before Adam. All of 
them obeyed, with the exception of Eblis, who was in consequence 
immediately expelled from heaven, and his place given to Adam." 

The formation of Eve from one of the ribs of the first man, is the 
same as that recorded in the Bible, as is also the order given to the 
father of mankind, not to taste the fruit of a particular tree. Eblis 
seized this opportunity of revenge. Having associated the peacock 
and the serpent in the enterprise, they by their wily speeches at 
length persuaded Adam to become guilty of disobedience. But no 
sooner had they touched the forbidden fruit, than their garments 
dropped on the ground, and the sight of their nakedness covered them 
both with shame and with confusion. They made a covering for 
their body with fig leaves ; but they were both immediately condemned 
to labour, and to die, and hurled down from Paradise. 

Adam fell upon the mountain of Sarendip, in the island of Ceylon, 
where a mountain is called by his name to the present day. Eve 
being separated from her spouse in her fall, alighted on the spot where 
China now stands, and Eblis fell not far from the same spot. As to 
the peacock and the snake, the former dropped in Hindostan, and the 
latter in Arabia. Adam, soon feeling the enormity of his fault, im- 
plored the mercy of God, who relenting, sent down his angels from 
heaven with a tabernacle, which they placed on the spot where Abra- 
ham, at a subsequent period, built the temple of Mecca. Gabriel 
instructed him in the rites and ceremonies performed about the 
sanctuary, in order that he might obtain the forgiveness of his offence, 
and afterwards led him to the mountain of Ararat, where he met Eve, 
from whom lie had been now separated above two hundred years. 

VOL. I. — 6 



82 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

last verse of the first chapter, and those three verses belong to, 
and make the conclusion of the first story. 

The second story begins at the fourth verse of the second 
chapter, and ends with that chapter. Those two stories have 
been confused into one, by cutting off the three last verses of 
the first story, and throwing them to the second chapter. 

I go now to show that those stories have been written by 
two different persons. 

From the first verse of the first chapter to the end of the 3d 
verse of the second chapter, which makes the whole of the first 
story, the word GOD is used without any epithet or additional 
word conjoined with it, as the reader will see : and this style 
of expression is invariably used throughout the whole of this 
story, and is repeated no less than thirty-five times, viz. a In 
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the 
spirit of God moved on the face of the waters, and God said, 
let there be light, and God saw the light," &c. &c. 

But immediately from the beginning of the fourth verse of 
the second chapter, where the second story begins, the style of 
expression is always the Lord God, and this style of expres- 
sion is invariably used to the end of the chapter, and is repeated 
eleven times ; in the one it is always God, and never the Lord 
God ; in the other it is always the Lord God, and never God. 
— The first story contains thirty-four verses, and repeats the 
single word God thirty-fire times. The second story contains 
twenty-two verses, and repeats the compound word Lord- God 
eleven times; this difference of style, so often repeated, and so 
uniformly continued, shows, that those two chapters, containing 
two different stories, are written by different persons: it is the 
same in all the different editions of the Bible, in all the lan- 
guages I have seen. 

Having thus shown, from the difference of style, that those 
two chapters, divided, as they properly divide themselves, at 
the end of the third verse of the second chapter, are the work 
of two different persons, I come to show, from the contradictory 
matters they contain, that they cannot be the work of one 
person, and are two different stories. 

It is impossible, unless the writer was a lunatic, without 
memory, that one and the same person could say, as is said in 
the 27th and 28th verses of the first chapter — " JSo God 
created man in his own image, in the image of God created 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKTNE. 83 

lie him ; male and female created he them : and God blessed 
them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and, 
replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over 
the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and every 
living thing that moveth on the face of the earth." It is, I 
say, impossible that the same person, who said this, could 
afterwards say, as is said in the second chapter, ver. 5, and 
there was not a man to till the ground ; and then proceed in 
the 7th verse to give another account of the making a man 
for the first time, and afterwards of the making a woman out 
of his rib. 

Again, one and the same person could not write, as is written 
in the 29th verse of the first chapter : " Behold I (God) have 
given you every herb bearing seed, which is on the face of the 
earth ; and every tree, in which is the fruit of a tree bearing 
seed, to you it shall be for meat/' and afterwards say, as is 
said in the second chapter, that the Lord-God planted a tree^ 
in the midst of a garden, and forbad man to eat thereof. 

Again, one and the same person could not say, " Thus the 
heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them, 
and on the seventh day God ended his work which he had 
made?' and shortly after set the Creator to work again, to 
plant a garden, to make a man and a woman, &c, as is 
done in the second chapter. 

Here are evidently two different stories contradicting each 
other.- — According to the first, the two sexes, the male and 
the female, were made at the same time. According to the 
second, they were made at different times ; the man first, the 
woman afterwards. — According to the first story, they were 
to have dominion over all the earth. According to the second, 
their dominion was limited to a garden. How large a garden 
it could be, that one man and one woman could dress and keep 
in order, I leave to the prosecutor, the judge, the jury, and Mr. 
Erskine to determine. 

The story of the talking serpent, and its tete-a-tete with 
Eve : the doleful adventure, called the Fall of Man: and how 
he was turned out of this fine garden, and how the garden was 
afterwards locked up and guarded by a flaming sword (if any 
one can tell what a flaming sword is), belong altogether to 
the second story. They have no connexion with the first 
story. According to the first, there was no garden of Eden ; 



84 LETTER, TO HR. ERSKINE. 

no forbidden tree : the scene was the whole earth, and the 
fruit of all the trees was allowed to be eaten. 

In giving this example of the strange state of the Bible, it 
cannot be said I have gone out of my way to seek it, for I 
have taken the beginning of the book ; nor can it be said I 
have made more of it, than it makes of itself. That there arc 
two stories is as visible to the eye, when attended to, as that 
there are two chapters, and that they have been written by 
different persons, nobody knows by whom. If this, then, is 
the strange condition the beginning of the Bible is in, it leads 
to a just suspicion, that the other parts are no better, and 
consequently it becomes every man's duty to examine the case. 
I have done it for myself, and am satisfied that the Bible is 
fabulous. 

Perhaps I shall be told in the cant-language of the day, as 
I have often been told by the Bishop of Llandaff and others, 
of the great and laudable pains, that many pious and learned 
men have taken to explain the obscure, and reconcile the con- 
tradictory, or as they say, the seemingly contradictory ■, pas- 
sages of the Bible. It is because the Bible needs such an un- 
dertaking, that is one of the first causes to suspect it is not 
the word of God : this single reflection, when carried home to 
the mind, is in itself a volume. 

"What ! does not the Creator of the Universe, the Fountain 
of all Wisdom, the Origin of all Science, the Author of all 
Knowledge, the Grod of Order and of Harmony, know how to 
write ? When we contemplate the vast economy of the creation ; 
when we behold the unerring regularity of the visible solar sys- 
tem, the perfection with which all its several parts revolve, and 
by corresponding assemblage, form a whole ; — when we launch 
our eye into the boundless ocean of space, and see ourselves 
surrounded by innumerable worlds, not one of which varies 
from its appointed place — when we trace the power of a Crea- 
tor, from a mite to an elephant — from an atom to an universe 
can we suppose that the mind that could conceive such a design, 
and the power that executed it with incomparable perfection, 
cannot write without inconsistency; or that a book so written 
can be the work of such a power? The writings of Thomas 
Paine, even of Thomas Paine, need no commentator to explain, 
expound, arrange, and re-arrange their several parts, to render 
them intelligible — he can relate a fact, or write an essay, 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 85 

without forgetting in one page what he has written in another 
— certainly, then, did the God of all perfection condescend to 
write or dictate a book, that l^ook would be as perfect as him- 
self is perfect : the Bible is not so ; and it is confessedly not so, 
by the attempts to amend it. 

Perhaps I shall be told, that though I have produced one 
instance, I cannot produce another of equal force. One is suf- 
ficient to call in question the genuineness or authenticity of any 
book that pretends to be the word of God ; for such a book 
would, as before said, be as perfect as its author is perfect. 

I will, however, advance only four chapters further into the 
book of Genesis, and produce another example that is sufficient 
to invalidate the story to which it belongs. 

We have all heard of Noah's Mood; and it is impossible to 
think of the whole human race, men, women, children, and 
infants (except one family) deliberately drowning, without feel- 
ing a painful sensation \ that heart must be a heart of flint 
that can contemplate such a scene with tranquillity. There is 
nothing in the ancient mythology, nor in the religion of any 
people we know of upon the globe, that records a sentence of 
their God, or of their Gods, so tremendously severe and mer- 
ciless. If the story be not true, we blasphemously dishonour 
God by believing it, and still more so, in forcing, by laws and 
penalties, that belief upon others. I go now to show from the 
face of the story, that it carries the evidence of not being 
true. 

I know not if the judge, the jury, and Mr. Erskine, who 
tried and convicted Williams, ever read the Bible, or know 
anything of its contents, and therefore I will state the case 
precisely. 

There were no such people as Jews or Israelites, in the time 
that Noah is said to have lived, and consequently there was 
no such law as that which is called the Jewish or Mosaic law. 
It is, according to the Bible, more than six hundred years 
from the time the flood is said to have happened, to the time 
of Moses, and consequently the time the flood is said to have 
happened, was more than six hundred years prior to the law 
called the law of Moses, even admitting Moses to have been 
the giver of that law, of which there is great cause to doubt. 

We have here two different epochs, or points of time ; that 
of the flood, and that of the law of Moses ; the former more 



83 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

than six hundred years prior to the latter. But the maker 
of the story of the flood, whoever he was, has betrayed him- 
self by blundering, for he has reversed the order of the times. 
He has told the story, as if the law of Moses was prior to the 
flood; for he has made God to say to Noah, Genesis, chap, 
vii. ver. 2, " Of every clean beast, thou shalt take unto thee 
by sevens, male and his female, and of beasts that are not 
clean by two, the male and his female." This is the Mosaic 
law, and could only be said after that law was given, not be- 
fore. There was no such things as beasts clean and unclean 
in the time of Noah.— It is nowhere said they were created 
so. — -They were only declared to be so, as meats, by the Mo- 
saic law, and that to the Jews only, and there was no such 
people as Jews in the time of Noah. This is the- blundering 
condition in which this strange story stands. 

When we reflect on a sentence so tremendously severe, as 
that of consigning the whole human race, eight persons excepted, 
to deliberate drowning; a sentence, which represents the Crea- 
tor in a more merciless character than any of those whom we 
call Pagans, ever represented the Creator to be, under the 
figure of any of their deities, we ought at least to suspend our 
belief of it, on a comparison of the beneficent character of the 
Creator, with the tremendous severity of the sentence ; but 
when we see the story told with such an evident contradiction 
of circumstances, we ought to set it down for nothing better 
than a Jewish fable, told by nobody knows whom, and nobody 
knows when. 

It is a relief to the genuine and sensible soul of man to find 
the story unfounded. It frees us from two painful sensations 
at once; that of having hard thoughts of the Creator, on ac- 
count of the severity of the sentence ; and that of sympathizing 
in the horrid tragedy of a drowning world. He who cannot 
feel the force of what I mean, is not, in my estimation of 
character, worthy the name of a human being. 

I have just said there is great cause to doubt, if the law, 
called the law of Moses, was given by Moses ; the books, called 
the books of Moses, which contain among other things, what 
is called the Mosaic law, are put in front of the Bible, in the 
manner of a constitution, with a history annexed to it. Had 
these books been written by Moses, they would undoubtedly 
have been the oldest books in the Bible, and entitled to be 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 87 

placed first, and the lawand the history they contain, would 
he frequently referred to in the hooks that follow; but this is 
not the case. From the time of Gthniel, the first of the judges, 
(Judges, chap. iii. ver. 9.) to the end of the book of Judges, 
which contains a period of four hundred and ten years, this 
law, and those books, were not in practice, nor known among 
the Jews, nor are they so much as alluded to throughout the 
whole of that period. And if the reader will examine the 
22d and 23d chapters of the 2d book of Kings, and 34th chap- 
ter 2d Chron. he will find that no such law, nor any such 
books, were known in the time of the Jewish, monarchy, and 
that the Jews were Pagans during: the whole of that time, and 

n DO i 

of their judges. 

The first time the law, called the law of Moses, made its 
appearance, was in the time of Josiah, about a thousand years 
after Moses was dead ; it is then said to have been found by 
accident. The account of this finding, or pretended finding, 
is given, 2d Chron. chap, xxxiv. ver. 14, 15, 16, 18: "Hilkiah 
the priest found the book of the law of the Lord, given by 
Moses ; and Hilkiah answered and said to Shaphan the scribe, 
I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord; 
and Hilkiah delivered the book to Shaphan, and carried the 
book to the king, and Shaphan told the king (Josiah), saying, 
Hilkiah the priest hath given me a book." 

In consequence of this finding, which much resembles that 
of poor Chatterton finding manuscript poems of Rowley the 
Monk in the Cathedral church at Bristol, or the late finding 
of manuscripts of Shakspeare in an old chest (two well known 
frauds), Josiah abolished the Pagan religion of the Jews, 
massacred all the Pagan priests, though he himself had been 
a Pagan, as the reader will see in the 23d chap. 2d Kings, 
and thus established in blood, the law that is there called the 
law of Moses, and instituted a passover in commemoration 
thereof. The 22d ver. speaking of this passover, says, 
'''Surely there was not holden such a passover from the days 
of the judges, that judged Israel, nor, in all the days of the 
kings of Israel, nor the kings of Judah ;" and the 25th verse 
in speaking of this priest-killing Josiah, says, " Like unto him 
there was no king before him, that turned to the Lord with 
all his heart, and with all his soul, and with all his might, ac- 
cording to all the law of Moses; neither after him arose there 



05 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

any like him." This verse, like the former one, is a general 
declaration against all the preceding kings without exception. 
It is also a declaration against all that reigned after him, of 
which there were four, the whole time of whose reigning makes 
but twenty-two years and six months, before the Jews were 
entirely broken up as a nation and their monarchy destroyed. 
It is therefore evident that the law, called the law of Moses, 
of which the Jews talk so much, was promulgated and estab- 
lished only in the latter time of the Jewish monarchy ; and it 
is very remarkable, that no sooner had they established it 
than they were a destroyed people, as if they were punished 
for acting an imposition and affixing the name of the Lord to 
it, and massacreing their former priests under the pretence of 
religion. The sum of the history of the Jews is this — they 
continued to be a nation about a thousand years, they then 
established a law, which they called the laiv of the Lord given 
by Moses, and were destroyed. This is not opinion, but his- 
torical evidence. 

Levi the Jew, who has written an answer to the Age of 
Reason, gives a strange account of the law called the law of 
Moses. 

In speaking of the story of the sun and moon standing still, 
that the Israelites might cut the throats of all their enemies, 
and hang all their kings, as told in Joshua, ch. x., he says, 
" There is also another proof of the reality of this miracle, 
which is, the appeal that the author of the book of Joshua 
makes to the book of Jasher — ' Is not this written in the book 
of Jasher ?' Hence," continues Levi, u it is manifest that 
the book commonly called the book of Jasher, existed, and was 
well known at the time the book of Joshua was written ; and 
pray, Sir/' continues Levi, " what book do you think this was ? 
why, no other than the law of Moses !" — Levi, like the Bishop 
of Llandaff, and many other guess-work commentators, either 
forgets, or does not know, what there is in one part of the 
Bible, when he is giving his opinion upon another part. 

I did not, however, expect to find so much ignorance in a 
Jew with respect to the history of his nation, though I might 
not be surprised at it in a Bishop. If Levi will look into the 
account given in the first chap. 2d book of Samuel, of the 
Amalekitc slaying Saul, and bringing the crown and bracelets 
to David, he will find the following recital, ver. 15, 17, 18 : 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 89 

" And David called one of the young men, and said, Go near 
and fall upon him (the Amalekite), and he smote him that he 
died : and David lamented with this lamentation over Saul, 
and over Jonathan his son; also he bade them teach the chil- 
dren the use of the bow ; — behold, it is written in the booh of 
Jasher." If the book of Jasher were what Levi calls it, the 
law of Moses, written by Moses, it is not possible that any- 
thing that David said or did, could be written in that law, 
since Moses died more than five hundred years before David 
was born; and on the other hand, admitting the book of Jasher 
to be the law called the law of Moses ; that law must have 
been written more than five hundred years after Moses was 
dead, or it could not relate anything said or done by David. 
Levi may take which, of these cases he pleases, for both are 
against him. 

I am not going in the course of this letter to write a com- 
mentary on the Bible. The two instances I have produced, 
and which are taken from the beginning of the Bible, show 
the necessity of examining it. It is a book that has been read 
more, and examined less, than any book that ever existed. 
Had it come to us an Arabic -or Chinese book, and said to 
have been a sacred book by the people from whom it came, 
no apology would have been made for the confused and disor- 
derly state it is in. The tales it relates of the Creator would 
have been censured, and our pity excited for those who believed 
them. We should have vindicated the goodness of God against 
such a book, and preached up the disbelief of it out of rever- 
ence to him. Why then do we not act as honourably by the 
Creator in the one case as we would do in the other ? As a 
Chinese book we would have examined it ; — ought we not then 
to examine it as a Jewish book ? The Chinese are a people 
who have all the appearance of far greater antiquity than the 
Jews, and in point of permanency there is no comparison. 
They are also a people of mild manners and of good morals, ex- 
cept where they have been corrupted by European commerce. 
Yet we take the word of a restless, bloody-minded people, as 
the Jews of Palestine were, when we would reject the same 
authority from a better people. We ought to see it is habit 
and prejudice that have prevented people from examining the 
Bible. Those of the Church of England call it holy, because 
the Jews called it so, and because custom and certain acts of 



90 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

parliament call it so, and they read it from custom. Dissen- 
ters read it for the purpose of doctrinal controversy, and are 
very fertile in discoveries and inventions. But none of them 
read it for the pure purpose of information, and of rendering 
justice to the Creator, by examining if the evidence it con- 
tains warrants the belief of its being what it is called. Instead 
of doing this, they take it blindfolded, and will have it to be 
the word of God whether it be so or not. For my own part, 
my belief in the perfection of the Deity will not permit me to 
believe that a book so manifestly obscure, disorderly, and con- 
tradictory, can be his work. I can write a better book myself. 
This disbelief in me proceeds from my belief in the Creator. 
I cannot pin my faith upon the say so of Hilkiah the priest, 
who said he found it, or any part of it, nor upon Shaphan the 
scribe, nor upon any priests, nor any scribe or man of the law 
of the present day. 

As to acts of parliament, there are some that say there are- 
witches and wizards; and the persons who made those acts (it 
was in the time of James the First), made also some acts 
which call the Bible the Holy Scriptures, or Word of God. 
But acts of parliament decide nothing with respect to God ; 
and as these acts of parliament makers were wrong with re- 
spect to witches and wizards, they may also be wrong with 
respect to the book in question.* It is therefore necessary 

* It is afflicting to humanity to reflect that, after the blood shed to 
establish the divinity of the Jewish scriptures, it should have become 
necessary to grant a new dispensation, which, through unbelief and 
conflicting opinions respecting its true construction, has cost as great 
or greater sacrifices than the former. Catholics, when they had the 
ascendency, burnt Protestants, who, in turn, led Catholics to the 
stake, and both united in exterminating Dissenters. The Dissenters, 
when they had the power, pursued the same course. The diabolical 
act of Calvin, in the burning of Dr. Scrvetus, is an awful witness of 
this fact. Scrvetus suffered two hours in a slow fire before life was 
extinct. The Dissenters, Avho escaped from England, had scarcely 
seated themselves in the wilds of America, before they began to ex- 
terminate from the territory they seized upon, all those who did not 
profess what they called the orthodox faith. Priests, Quakers, and 
Adamites, were prohibited from entering the territory, on pain of 
death. By priests, they meant clergymen of the Reman Catholic, if 
not also the Protestant or Episcopal persuasion. Their own priests 
they denominated ministers. These puritans also, particularly in the 
province of Massachusetts Bay, put many persons to death on the 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 91 

that -the hook he examined; it is our duty to examine it; and 
to suppress the right of examination is sinful in any govern- 
ment, or in any judge or jury. The Bible makes God to say 



charge of witchcraft. There is no account however of their having 
burned any alive, as was done in Scotland, about the same period in 
which the executions took place in Massachusetts Bay. In England, 
Sir Matthew Hale, a judge, eminent for extraordinary piety, condemned 
two women to death on the same charge. 

I doubt, however, if there be any acts of the parliament now in 
force for inflicting pains and penalties for denying the scriptures to 
be the word of God ; as our upright judges seem to rely at this time 
wholly upon, what they call, the common law to justify the horrid 
persecutions which are now carried on in England, to the disgrace of 
a country that boasts so much of its tolerant spirit. 

As the common law is derived from the customs of our ancestors, 
when in a rude and barbarous condition, it is not surprising that 
many of its injunctions should be opposed to the ideas, which a 
society in a civilized and refined state should deem compatible with 
justice and right. Accordingly we find that government has from 
time to time annulled some of its most prominent absurdities ; such 
as the trials by ordeal, the wager of battle in case of appeal for murder, 
under a belief that a supernatural power would interfere to save the 
innocent and destroy the guilty in such a combat, &c. Yet much 
remains nearly as ridiculous, that requires a further and more liberal 
use of the pruning knife. 

"In the days of the Stewarts (a. d. 1670, 22d year of Charles II. 
See the Republican, vol. 5, p. 22), William Penn was indicted at Com- 
mon Law for a riot and breach of the peace, on having delivered his 
sentiments to a congregation of people, in Grace-church-street : he 
told the judge and the jury that Common Law was an abuse, and no 
law at all ; and in spite of the threats, the fines, and imprisonments 
inflicted on his jury, they acquitted him on this plea. William Penn 
found an honest jury." 

The introduction however of Christianity, as composing a part of 
this Common Law (bad as much of it is), is proved to be a fraud or 
misconception of the old Norman French ; as I shall show by an 
extract of a letter from the celebrated American statesman, Thomas 
Jefferson, to our worthy Major Cartwright, bearing date 5th June, 1824. 

[For a more full developement of this subject, see Sampson's 
Anniversary Discourse, before the Historical Society of New York. 
— Editor.] 

Extract from Jefferson's letter. 

"I am glad to find in your book (The English Constitution, pro- 
duced and illustrated) a formal contradiction, at length, of the judi- 
ciary usurpation of legislative power ; for such the judges have 
usurped in their repeated decisions, that Christianity is a part of the 
common law. The proof of the contrary, which you have adduced, is 



92 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

to Moses, Deut. chap. vii. ver. 2, "And when the Lord thy 
G-od shall deliver them before thee, thou shalt smite them, 
and utterly destroy them, thou shalt make no covenant with 



incontrovertible : to wit, that the common law existed while the Anglo- 
Saxons were yet Pagans ; at a time when they had never yet heard 
the name of Christ pronounced, or knew that such a character bad 
ever existed. But it may amuse you to show when, and by what 
means, they stole this law in upon us. In a case of Quare Impedit, 
in the year book, 34 Henry VI. fo. 38. [1458,] a question was made 
how far the Ecclesiastical law was to be respected in a common law 
court? and Prisot, C. J., gave his opinion in these words : — ' A tiel 
les que ils de saint eglise ont en ancien scripture, covient a nous a 
donner credence : car ceo Commen Ley sur quels touts manners leis 
sont fonddes. Et auxy, Sir, nous sumus obliges de conustre lour ley 
de saint eglise : et semblabement ils sont obliges de conustre nostre 
ley — Et, Sir, si poit apperer or a nous que l'evesque adfait come un 
ordinary fera en tiel cas, adorez nous devons ceo adjudger bon, ou 
auterment nemy ?' &c. [To such laws as they have of the ancient 
scriptures, it behooves us to give credence : for it is that common law 
upon which all kinds of law are founded ; and therefore, sir, are we 
bound to know their law of holy church, and in like manner are they 
obliged to know our laws. And, sir, if it should appear now to us, 
that the Bishop had done what an ordinary ought to do in like case, 
then we should adjudge it good, and not otherwise. f] 

" See Gr. C. Fitz. abr. qu. imp. 89. Bro. abr. qu. imp. 12. Finch in his 
1st Book, c. 3, is the first afterwards who quotes the case, and mis- 
states it thus, ' to such laws of the church as have warrant in Holy 
Scripture, our law giveth credence,' and cites Prisot : mistranslating 
' ancient Scripture' into ' holy scripture ;' whereas Prisot palpably says, 
' to such laws as those of holy church have in ancient loriting it is 
proper for us to give credence ; to wit, their ancient written laws.' 
This was in 1613, a century and a half after the dictum of Prisot. 
AYingate, in 1658, erects this false translation into a maxim of the 
common law, copying the words of Finch, but citing Prisot. Wingate, 
max. 3, and Sheppard, tit. 'Religion,' in 1675 copies the same mis- 
translation, quoting the Y. 13, Finch and Wingate. Hale expresses 
it in these words ; ' Christianity is parcel of the law of England' — 1 
Ventris 293, 3 Kcb. 607, but quotes no authority. By these echoings 
and re-echoings from one to another, it had become so established in 
1723, that in the case of the King v. Woolston, 2 Stra. 834, the court 
would not suffer it to be debated, whether to write against Christi- 
anity was punishable in the temporal court at common law. Wood, 
therefore, 409, ventures still to vary the phrase, and says, ' that all 
blasphemy and profaneness are offences by the common law,' and 
cites 2 Stra. — then Blackstone, in 1773, iv. 59, repeats the words of 
Hale, that ' Christianity is part of the law of England,' citing Ventris 
and Strange; and filially, Lord Mansfield, with a little qualification, 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE, 93 

them, nor show mercy unto them." Not all the priests, nor 
scribes, nor tribunals in the world, nor all the authority of man, 
shall make me believe that God ever gave such a Robespierean 
precept as that of showing no mercy; and consequently it is im- 
possible that I, or any person who believes as reverentially of 
the Creator as I do, can believe such a book to be the word 
of God. 

There have been, and still are those, who whilst they profess 
to believe the Bible to be the word of God, affect to turn it 
into ridicule. Taking their profession and conduct together, 
they act blasphemously : because they act as if God himself 
was not to be believed. The case is exceedingly different with 
respect to the Age of Reason. That book is written to show 
from the Bible itself, that there is abundant matter to suspect 
it is not the word of God, and that we have been imposed 
upon, first by Jews, and afterwards by priests and commenta- 
tors. 

Not one of those who have attempted to write answers to 
the Age of Reason, have taken the ground upon which only 
an answer could be written. The case in question is not upon 
any point of doctrine, but altogether upon a matter of fact. 
Is the book called the Bible the word of God, or is it not ? If 



in Evan's case in 1767, says, that 'the essential principles of revealed 
religion are parts of the common law ;' thus ingulfing Bible, Testa- 
ment, and all into the common law, without citing any authority; 
and thus we find this chain of authorities hanging, link by link, one 
upon another, and all ultimately on one and the same hook ; and that, 
a mistranslation of the words i ancient scripture,'' used by Prisot. 
Finch quotes Prisot ; Wingate does the same ; Sheppard quotes Prisot, 
Finch, and Wingate; Hale cites nobody ; the court in Woolston's case, 
cites Hale ; Wood cites Woolston's case ; Blackstone quotes Wool- 
ston's case and Hale ; and Lord Mansfield, like Hale, ventures it on 
his own authority. Here I might defy the best read lawyer to pro- 
duce another scrap of authority for this judiciary forgery ; and I might 
go on further to show how some of the Anglo-Saxon priests interpo- 
lated into the text of Alfred's laws the 20th, 21st, 22d, and 23d 
chapters of Exodus, and the 15th of the Acts of the Apostles, from 
the 23d to the 29th verses ; but this would lead my pen, and your 
patience, too far. What a conspiracy this, between church and 
state! ! !" 

[f The canons of the church anciently were incorporated ivith the Laws 
of the land, and of the same authority. See Dr. Henry's Hist. G. 
Britain. — Editor. ] 



94 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

it can be proved to be so, it ought to be believed as such ; 
if not, it ought not to be believed as such. This is the 
true state of the case. The Age of Reason produces evi- 
dence to show, and I have in this letter produced additional 
evidence, that it is not the word of God. Those who take 
the contrary side, should prove that it is. But this they have 
not done, nor attempted to do, and consequently they have 
done nothing to the purpose. 

The prosecutors of Williams have shrunk from the point, 
as the answers have done. They have availed themselves of 
prejudice instead of proof. If a writing was produced in a 
court of judicature, said to be the writing of a certain person, 
and upon the reality or non-reality of which, some matter at 
issue depended, the point to be proved would be, that such 
writing was the writing of such person. Or if the issue de- 
pended upon certain words, which some certain person was 
said to have spoken, the point to be proved would be, that 
such words were spoken by such person ; and Mr. Erskine 
would contend the case upon this ground. A certain book is 
said to be the word of G-od. What is the proof that it is so ? 
for upon this the whole depends ; and if it cannot be proved 
to be so, the prosecution fails for want of evidence. 

The prosecution against Williams charges him with publish- 
ing a book, entitled The Age of Reason, which it says, is an 
impious, blasphemous pamphlet, tending to ridicule and bring 
into contempt the Holy Scriptures. Nothing is more easy 
than to find abusive words, and English prosecutions are 
famous for this species of vulgarity. The charge, however, is 
sophistical ; for the charge, as growing out of the pamphlet, 
should have stated, not as it now states, to ridicule and bring 
into contempt the Holy Scriptures, but to show, that the book 
called the Holy Scriptures are not the Holy Scriptures. It is 
one thing if I ridicule a work as being written by a certain 
person ; but it is quite a different thing if I write to prove 
that such work was not written by such person. In the first 
case, I attack the person through the work ; in the other case, 
I defend the honour of the person against the work. This is 
what the Age of Reason does, and consequently the charge in 
the indictment is sophistically stated. Every one will admit, 
that if the Bible be not the word of God, we err in believing 
it to be his word, and ought not to believe it. Certainly, then, 
the ground the prosecution should take, would be to prove that 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 95 

the Bible is in fact what it is called. But this the prosecution 
has riot done, and cannot do. 

In all cases the prior fact must be proved, before the sub- 
sequent facts can be admitted in evidence. In a prosecution 
for adultery, the fact of marriage, which is the prior fact, must 
be proved before the facts to prove adultery can be received. 
If the fact of marriage cannot be proved, adultery cannot be 
proved ) and if the prosecution cannot prove the Bible to be 
the word of God, the charge of blasphemy is visionary and 
groundless. 

In Turkey they might prove, if the case happened, that a 
certain book was bought of a certain bookseller, and that the 
said book was written against the Koran. In Spain and Por- 
tugal they might prove, that a certain book was bought of a 
certain bookseller, and that the said book was written against 
the infallibility of the Pope. Under the ancient mythology 
they might have proved, that a certain writing was bought of 
a certain person, and that the said writing was written against 
the belief of a plurality of Gods, and in the support of the be- 
lief of one God. Socrates was condemned for a work of this 
kind. 

All these are but subsequent facts, and amount to nothing, 
unless the prior facts be proved. The prior fact, with respect 
to the first case is, Is the Koran the. word of God ? With re- 
spect to the second, Is the infallibility of the Pope a truth ? 
With respect to the third, Is the belief of a plurality of Gods 
a true belief? and in like manner with respect to the present 
prosecution, Is the book called the Bible the word of God ? 
If the present prosecution prove no more than could be proved 
in any or all of these cases, it proves only as they do, or as 
an inquisition would prove ; and in this view of the case, the 
prosecutors ought at least to leave off reviling that infernal in- 
stitution, the inquisition. The prosecution, however, though 
it may injure the individual, may promote the cause of truth; 
because the manner in which it has been conducted, appears a 
confession to the world, that there is no evidence to prove that 
the Bible is the word of God. On what authority then do 
we believe the many strange stories that the Bible tells of 
God? 

This prosecution has been carried on through the medium 
of what is called a special jury, and the whole of a special 



96 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

jury is nominated by the master of the crown office. Mr. 
Erskine vaunts himself upon the bill he brought into parlia- 
ment, with respect to trials, for what the government party 
calls libels. But if in crown prosecutions, the master of the 
crown office is to continue to appoint the whole special jury, 
which he does by nominating the forty-eight persons from 
which the solicitor of each party is to strike out twelve, Mr. 
Erskine's bill is only vapour and smoke. The root of the 
grievance lies in the manner of forming the jury, and to this 
Mr. Erskine's bill applies no remedy. 

When the trial of Williams came on, only eleven of the 
special jurymen appeared, and the trial was adjourned. In 
cases where the whole number do not appear, it is customary 
to make up the deficiency by taking jurymen from persons 
present in the court. This, in the law term, is called a Tales. 
Why was not this done in this case ? Reason will suggest, 
that they did not choose to depend on a man accidentally ta- 
ken. When the trial re-commenced, the whole of the special 
jury appeared, and Williams was convicted : it is folly to con- 
tend a cause where the whole-jury is nominated by one of the 
parties. I will relate a recent case that explains a great deal 
with respect to special juries in crown prosecutions. 

On the trial of Lambert and others, printers and proprie- 
tors of the Morning Chronicle, for a libel, a special jury was 
struck, on the prayer of the Attorney-General, who used to be 
called Diabolus Regis, or King's Devil. 

Only seven or eight of the special jury appeared, and the 
Attorney-General not praying a Tales, the trial stood over to a 
future day; when it was to be brought on a second time, the 
Attorney-General prayed for a new special jury, but as this 
was not admissible, the original special jury was summoned. 
Only eight of them appeared, on which the Attorney-General 
said, " As I cannot, on a secpnd trial, have a special jury, I 
will pray a Tales." Four persons v^ere then taken from the 
persons present in court, and added to the eight special jury- 
men. The jury went out at two o'clock to consult on their 
verdict, and the Judge (Kenyon) understanding they were 
divided, and likely to be some time in making up their minds, 
retired from the bench, and went home. At seven the jury 
went, attended by an officer of the court, to the Judge's house, 
and delivered a verdict, " Guilty of publishing, but tcith no 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 97 

malicious intention." The Judge said, u I cannot record 
this verdict; it is no verdict at all." The jury withdrew, 
and after sitting in consultation till five in the morning, brought 
in a verdict, Not Gruilty. Would this have been the case, had 
had they been all special jurymen nominated by the Master 
of the Crown-office ? This is one of the cases that ought to 
open the eyes of people with respect to the manner of forming 
special juries. 

On the trial of Williams, the Judge prevented the counsel 
for the defendant proceeding in the defence. The prosecution 
had selected a number of passages from the Age of Reason, 
and inserted them in the indictment. The defending counsel 
was selecting other passages to show, that the passages in the 
indictment were conclusions drawn from premises, and unfairly 
separated therefrom in the indictment. The Judge said, he 
did not know hoio to act; meaning thereby whether to let the 
counsel proceed in the defence or not, and asked the jury if 
they wished to hear the passages read which the defending 
counsel had selected. The jury said NO, and the defending 
counsel was in consequence silent. Mr. Erskine then, Falstaff 
like, having all the field to himself, and no enemy at hand, 
laid about him most heroically, and the jury found the defend- 
ant guilty. I know not if Mr. Erskine ran out of court and 
hallooed, huzza for the Bible and the trial by jury. 

Robespierre caused a decree to be passed during the trial of 
Brissot and others, that after a trial had lasted three days, (the 
whole of which time, in the case of Brissot, was taken up by the 
prosecuting party) the judge should ask the jury (who were 
then a packed jury) if they were satisfied ? If the jury said 
YES, the trial ended, and the jury proceeded to give their 
verdict, without hearing the defence of the accused party. 
It needs no depth of wisdom to make an application of this 
case. 

I will now state a case to show that the trial of Williams is not 
a trial, according to Kenyon's own explanation of law. 

On a late trial in London (Selthens versus Hoossman) on a 
policy of insurance, one of the jurymen, Mr. Dunnage, after 
hearing one side of the case, and without hearing the other 
side, got up and said, it icas as legal a 'policy of insurance as 
ever teas written. The Judge, who was the same as presided 
on the trial of Williams, replied, that it was a great misfor- 

VOL. i. — 9 



98 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

tune when any gentleman of 'the jury makes up his mind on a 
cause before it teas finished. Mr. Erskine, who in that case 
was counsel for the defendant (in this he was against the de- 
fendant) cried out, it is worse than a misfortune, it is a fault. 
The Judge, in his address to the jury in summing up the 
evidence, expatiated upon, and explained the parts which the 
law assigned to the counsel on each side, to the witnesses, and 
to the Judge, and said, " When all this was done, and not un- 
til then, it was the business of the jury to declare what the 
justice of the case icas ; and that it was extremely rash and 
imprudent in any man to draw a conclusion before all the 
premises were laid before them, upon which, that conclusion was 
to be grounded^ According then to Kenyon's own doctrine, 
the trial of Williams is an irregular trial, the verdict an irre- 
gular verdict, and as such is not recordable. 

As to special juries, they were but modern j and were 
instituted for the purpose of determining cases at law between 
merchants ; because, as the method of keeping merchants' ac- 
counts differs from that of common tradesmen, and their 
business, by lying much in foreign bills of exchange, insurance, 
&c, is of a different description to that of common tradesmen, 
it might happen that a common jury might not be competent 
to form a judgment. The law that instituted special juries, 
makes it necessary that the jurors be merchants, or of the de- 
gree of squires. A special jury in London is generally 
composed of merchants; and in the country of men called 
country squires, that is, fox-hunters, or men qualified to hunt 
foxes. The one may decide very well upon a case of pounds, 
shillings, and pence, or of the counting-house; and the other 
of the jockey-club or the chase. But who would not laugh, 
that because such men can decide such cases, they can also be 
jurors upon theology ? Talk with some London merchants 
about scripture, and they will understand you mean scrip, and 
tell you how much it is worth at the Stock Exchange. Ask 
them about theology, and they will say, they know of no such 
gentleman upon ' Change. Tell some country squires of the 
sun and moon standing still, the one on the top of a hill and 
the other in a valley, and they will swear it is a lie of one's 
own making. Tell them that God Almighty ordered a man to 
make a cake and bake it with a t — d and eat it, and they will 
say it is one of Dean Swift's blackguard stories. Tell them 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 99 

it is in the Bible, and they will lay a bowl of punch it is not, 
and leave it to the parson of the parish to decide. Ask them 
also about theology, and they will say, they know of no such 
one on the turf. An appeal to such juries serves to bring the 
Bible into more ridicule than any thing the author of the Age 
of Reason has written ; and the manner in which the trial 
has been conducted shows, that the prosecutor dares not come 
to the point, nor meet the defence of the defendant. But all 
other cases apart, on what ground of right, otherwise than on 
the right assumed by an inquisition, do such prosecutions 
stand ? Religion is a private affair between every man and 
his Maker, and no tribunal or third party has a right to inter- 
fere between them. It is not properly a thing of this world ' y 
it is only practised in this world ; but its object is in a future 
world ) and it is no otherwise an object of just laws, than for 
the purpose of protecting the equal rights of all, however 
various their beliefs may be. If one man choose to believe the 
book called the Bible to be the word of God, and another, from 
the convinced idea of the purity and perfection of God, com- 
pared with the contradictions the book contains — from the 
lasciviousness of some of its stories, like that of Lot getting 
drunk and debauching his two daughters, which is not spoken 
of as a crime, and for which the most absurd apologies are made 
— from the immorality of some of its precepts, like that of show- 
ing no mercy — and from the total want of evidence on the case, 
thinks he ought not to believe it to be the word of God, each of 
them has an equal right ; and if the one has a right to give his 
reasons for believing it to be so, the other has an equal right 
to give his reasons for believing the contrary. Anything that 
goes beyond this rule is an inquisition. Mr. Erskine talks of 
his moral education ; Mr. Erskine is very little acquainted with 
theological subjects, if he does not know there is such a thing 
as a sincere and religious belief that the Bible is not the word 
of God. This is my belief; it is the belief of thousands far 
more learned than Mr. Erskine ; and it is a belief that is every 
day increasing. It is not infidelity, as Mr. Erskine profanely 
and abusively calls it : it is the direct reverse of infidelity. It 
is a pure religious belief, founded on the idea of the perfection 
of the Creator. If the Bible be the word of God, it needs not 
the wretched aid of prosecutions to support it ; and you might 
with as much propriety make a law to protect the sunshine, as 



100 LETTER TO MR. ERSKTNE. 

to protect the Bible, if the Bible, like the sun, be the work 
of God. We see that God takes good care of the Creation he 
has made. lie suffers no part of it to be extinguished : and 
he will take the same care of his word, if he ever gave one. 
But men ought to be reverentially careful and suspicious how 
they ascribe books to him as his word which from this con- 
fused conditir.n would dishonour a common scribbler, and 
against which there is abundant evidence, and every cause to 
suspect imposition. Leave then the Bible to itself. God will 
take care of it if he has anything to do with it, as he takes 
care of the sun and the moon, which need not your laws for 
their better protection. As the two instances I have produced 
in the beginning of this letter, from the book of Genesis, the 
one respecting the account called the Mosaic account of the 
Creation, the other of the Flood, sufficiently show the neces- 
sity of examining the Bible, in order to ascertain what degree 
of evidence there is for receiving or rejecting it as a sacred 
book ; I shall not add more upon that subject; but in order to 
show Mr. Erskine that there are religious establishments for 
public worship which make no profession of faith of the books 
called holy scriptures, nor admit of priests, I will conclude 
with an account of a society lately begun in Paris, and which 
is very rapidly extending itself. 

The society takes the name of Theophilantropes, which 
would be rendered in English by the word Theophilanthropists, 
a word compounded of three Greek words, signifying God, 
Love, and Man. The explanation given to this word is, 
Lovers of God and Man, or Adorers of God and Friends of 
Man, adorateurs de Dieu et amis des homines. The society 
proposes to publish each year a volume, entitled, Anne Reli- 
gieuse des Theophilanthropes, Religious year of the Theophil- 
anthropists : the first volume is just published, entitled 

RELIGIOUS YEAR of the THEOPHILANTHROPISTS, 

OR 

ADORERS OF GOD, AND FRIENDS OF MAX. 

Being a collection of the discourses, lectures, hymns, and 
canticles, for all the religious and moral festivals of the Theo- 
philanthropists during the course of the year, whether in their 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 101 

public temples or in their private families, published by the 
author of the Manuel of the Theophilanthropists. 

The volume of this year, which is the first, contains 214 
pages duodecimo. 

The following is the table of contents : — 

1. Precise history of the Tbeophilanthropists. 

2. Exercises common to all the festivals. 

3. Hymn, No. L God of whom the universe speaks. 

4. Discourse upon the existence of God. 

5. Ode II. The heavens instruct the earth. 

6. Precepts of wisdom, extracted from the book of . the Ado- 

rateurs. 

7. Canticle, No. III. God Creator, soul of nature. 

8. Extracts from divers moralists upon the nature of God, 

and upon the physical proofs of his existence. 

9. Canticle, No. IV. Let us bless at our waking the God 

who gives us light. 

10. Moral thoughts extracted from the Bible. 

11. Hymn, No. V. Father of the universe. 

12. Contemplation of nature on the first days of the spring. 

13. Ode, No. VI. Lord in thy glory adorable. 

14. Extracts from the moral thoughts of Confucius. 

15. Canticle in praise of actions, and thanks for the works of 

the creation. 

16. Continuation from the moral thoughts of Confucius. 

17. Hymn, No. VII. All the universe is full of thy magnifi- 

cence. 

18. Extracts from an ancient sage of India upon &e duties 

of families. 

19. Upon the spring. 

20. Moral thoughts of divers Chinese authors. 

21. Canticle, No. VIII. Everything celebrate the glory of 

the eternal. 

22. Continuation of the moral thoughts of Chinese authors. 

23. Invocation for the country. 

24. Extracts from the moral thoughts of Theognis. 

25. Invocation, Creator of man. 

26. Ode, No. IX. Upon Death. 

27. Extracts from the book of the Moral Universal, upon 

happiness. 

28. Ode, No. X. Supreme Author of Nature. 

9 * 



102 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

INTRODUCTION, 

ENTITLED PRECISE HISTORY OF THE -THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 

" Towards the month of Vendimiaire, of the year 5 (Sept., 
1796), there appeared at Paris a small work, entitled, Manuel 
of the Theoantropophiles, since called, for the sake of easier 
pronunciation, Theophilantropes (Theophilanthropists), pub- 
lished by C — . 

" The worship set forth in this Manuel, of which the origin 
is from the beginning of the world, was then professed by some 
families in the silence of domestic life. But no sooner was 
the Manuel published, than some persons, respectable for their 
knowledge and their manners, saw, in the formation of a soci- 
ety open to the public, an easy method of spreading moral 
religion, and of leading by degrees, great numbers to the know- 
ledge thereof, who appear to have forgotten it. This conside- 
ration ought of itself not to leave indifferent those persons who 
know that morality and religion, which is the most solid sup- 
port thereof, are necessary to the maintenance of society, as 
well as to the happiness of the individual. These considera- 
tions determined the families of the Theophilanthropists to 
unite publicly for the exercise of their worship. 

" The first society of this kind opened in the month of Ni- 
Tose, year 5 (Jan. 1797), in the street Dennis, No. 84, corner 
of Lombard-street. The care of conducting this society was 
undertaken by five fathers of families. They adopted the 
Manuel of the Theophilanthropists. They agreed to hold their 
days of public worship on the days corresponding to Sundays, 
but without making this a hindrance to other societies to 
choose such other day as they thought more convenient. Soo.n 
after this, more societies were opened, of which some celebrate 
on the decacli (tenth day), and others on the Sunday : it was 
also resolved that the committee should meet one hour each 
week for the purpose of preparing or examining the discourses 
and lectures proposed for the next general assembly. That the 
general assemblies should be called Fetes (festivals) religious 
and moral. That those festivals should be conducted in prin- 
ciple and form, in a manner, as not to be considered as the 
festivals of an exclusive Worship ; and that in recalling those 
who might not be attached to any particular worship, those 



LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 103 

festivals might also be attended as moral exercises by disciples 
of every sect, and consequently avoid, by scrupulous care, 
everything that might make the society appear under the 
name of a sect. The society adopts neither rites nor priest- 
hood, and it will never lose sight of the resolution not to ad- 
vance anything, as a society, inconvenient to any sect or sects, 
in any time or country, and under any government. 

" It will be seen, that it is so much the more easy for the 
nociety to keep within this circle, because that the dogmas of 
the Theophilanthropists are those upon which all the sects 
have agreed, that their moral is that upon which there has 
never been the least dissent; and that the name they have 
taken, expresses the double end of all the sects, that of leading 
to the adoration of God and love of man. 

" The Theophilanthropists do not call themselves the disci- 
ples of such or such a man. They avail themselves of the 
wise precepts that have been transmitted by writers of all 
countries and in all ages. The reader will find in the dis- 
courses, lectures, hymns, and canticles, which the Theophilan- 
thropists have adopted for their religious and moral festivals, 
and which they present under the title of Annee Religieuse, 
extracts from moralists, ancient and modern, divested of max- 
ims too severe, or too loosely conceived, or contrary to piety, 
whether towards God Or towards man." 

Next follow the dogmas of the Theophilanthropists, or 
things they profess to believe. These are but two, and are 
thus expressed, les Theophilantropes croient & V existence de 
Dieu, ct a V immortal ite de Vdine. The Theophilanthropists 
believe in the existence of God, and the immortality of the 
soul. 

The Manuel of the Theophilanthropists, a small volume of 
sixty pages, duodecimo, is published separately, as is also their 
catechism, which is of the same size. The principles of the 
Theophilanthropists are the same as those published in the 
first part of the Age of Reason in 1793, and in the second 
part, in 1795. The Theophilanthropists, as a society, are 
silent upon all the things they do not profess to believe, as 
the sacredness of the books called the Bible, &c, &c. They 
profess the immortality of the soul, but they are silent on the 
immortality of the body, or that which the church calls the 
resurrection. The author of the Age of Reason gives reasons 



104 LETTER TO MR. ERSKINE. 

for everything lie disbelieves, as well as for those he believes ; 
and where this cannot be done with safety, the government is 
a despotism, and the church an inquisition. 

It is more than three years since the first part of the Age 
of Reason was published, aud more than a year and a half 
since the publication of the second part : the Bishop of Llan- 
daff undertook to write an answer to the second part ; and it 
was not until after it was known that the author of the Age of 
Reason would reply to the Bishop, that the prosecution against 
the book was set on foot; and which is said to be carried on 
by some clergy of the English church. If the Bishop is one 
of them, and the object be to prevent an exposure of the nu- 
merous and gross errors he has committed in his work (and 
which he wrote when report said that Thomas Paine was dead), 
it is a confession that he feels the weakness of his cause, and 
finds himself unable to maintain it. In this case he has given 
me a triumph I did not seek, and Mr. Erskine, the herald of 
the prosecution, has proclaimed it. 

Thomas Paine. 



A 
DISCOURSE 

Delivered to the Society of TheojpJiilanthrojpists, at Paris. 



Religion has two principal enemies, Fanaticism and In- 
fidelity, or that which is called Atheism. The first requires 
to be combated by reason or morality, the other by natural 
philosophy. 

The existence of a God is the first dogma of the Theophi- 
lanthropists. It is upon this subject that I solicit your atten- 
tion : for though it has been often treated of, and that most 
sublimely, the subject is inexhaustible ; and there will always 
remain something to be said that has not been before advanced. 
I go therefore to open the subject, and to crave your attention 
to the end. 

The universe is the Bible of a true Theophilanthropist. It 
is there that he reads of God. It is there that the proofs of 
his existence are to be sought and to be found. As to written 
or printed books, by whatever name they are called, they are 
the works of man's hands, and carry no evidence in themselves 
that God is the author of any of them. It must be in some- 
thing that man could not make, that we must seek evidence 
for our belief, and that something is the universe ; the true 
Bible j the inimitable work of God. 

Contemplating the universe, the whole system of creation, 
in this point of light, we shall discover that all that which is 
called natural philosophy is properly a divine study. It is the 
study of God through his works. It is the best study, by 
which we can arrive at a knowledge of his existence, and the 
only one by which we can gain a glimpse of his perfection. 

Do we want to contemplate his power ? "We see it in the 
immensity of the creation. Do we want to contemplate his 
wisdom? We sec it in the unchangeable order by which 

(105) 



106 DISCOURSE TO THE SOCIETY 

the incomprehensible whole is governed. Do we want to 
contemplate his munificence ? We see it in the abundance 
with which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his 
mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abundance even 
from the unthankful. In fine, do we want to know what God 
is ? Search not written or printed books, but the scripture 
called the Creation. 

It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and 
all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as 
accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theolo- 
gically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of 
them : for all the principles of science are of divine orgin. 
Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles. 'He can 
only discover them ; and he ought to look through the dis- 
covery to the author. 

When we examine an extraordinary piece of machinery, an 
astonishing pile of architecture, a well executed statue, or an 
highly finished painting, where life and action are imitated, and 
habit only prevents our mistaking a surface of light and shade 
for cubical solidity, our ideas are naturally led to think of the 
extensive genius and talents of the artist. When we study 
the elements of geometry, we think of Euclid. When we 
speak of gravitation, we think of Newton. How then is it, 
that when we study the works of God in the creation, we stop 
short, and do not think of God ? It is from the error of the 
schools in having taught those subjects as accomplishments 
only, and thereby separated the study of them from the Being 
who is the author of them. 

The schools have made the study of theology to consist in 
the study of opinions in written or printed books; whereas 
theology should be studied in the works or book of the 
Creation. The study of theology in books of opinions has 
often produced fanaticism, rancour, and cruelty of temper; 
and from hence have proceeded the numerous persecutions, 
the fanatical quarrels, the religious burnings and massacres, 
that have desolated Europe. But the study of theology in the 
works of the Creation produces a direct contrary effect. The 
mind becomes at once enlightened and serene; a copy of the 
scene it beholds ; information and adoration go hand in hand ; 
and all the social faculties become enlarged. 

The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in 



OF TIIEOPHILANTKROPISTS. 107 

teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has 
been that of generating in the pupils a species of Atheism. 
Instead of looking through the works of the creation to the 
Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge 
they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labour 
with studied ingenuity to ascribe everything they behold to 
innate properties of matter; and jump over all the rest, by 
saying, that matter is eternal. 

Let us examine this subject; it is worth examining: for if 
we examine it through all its cases, the result will be, that the 
existence of a superior cause, or that which man calls God ; 
will be discoverable by philosophical principles. 

In the first place, admitting matter to have properties, as we 
see it has, the question still remains, how came matter by 
those properties? To this they will answer, that, matter 
possessed those properties eternally. This is not solution, but 
assertion ; and to deny it is equally impossible of proof as to 
assert it. It is then necessary to go further ; and therefore I 
say, if there exists a circumstance that is not a property of 
matter, and without which the universe, or, to speak in a 
limited degree, the solar system, composed of planets and a 
sun, could not exist a moment ; all the arguments of Atheism, 
drawn from properties of matter, and applied to account for 
the universe, will be overthrown, and the existence of a 
superior cause, or that which man calls God, becomes dis- 
coverable, as is before said, by natural philosophy. 

I go now to show that such a circumstance exists, and what 
it is : 

The universe is composed of matter, and as a system is sus- 
tained by motion. Motion is not a property of matter, and 
without this motion, the solar system could not exist. Were 
motion a property of matter, that undiscovered and undis- 
coverable thing ca»lled perpetual motion would establish itself. 
It is because motion is not a property of matter that perpetual 
motion is an impossibility in the hand of every being but that 
of the Creator of motion. When the pretenders to Atheism 
can produce perpetual motion, and not till then, they may ex- 
pect to be credited. 

The natural state of matter, as to place, is a state of rest. 
Motion or change of place, is the effect of an externalcause 
acting upon matter. As to that faculty of matter that is 



108 DISCOURSE TO THE SOCIETY 

called gravitation, it is the influence which two or more bodies 
have reciprocally on each other to unite and be at rest. Every- 
thing which has hitherto been discovered with respect to the 
motion of the planets in the system, relates only to the laws 
by which motion acts, and not to the cause of motion. Gra- 
vitation, so far from being the cause of motion to the 
planets that compose the solar system, would be the destruc- 
tion of the solar system, were revolutionary motion to cease ; 
for as the action of spinning upholds a top, the revolutionary 
motion upholds the planets in their orbits, and prevents them 
from gravitating and forming one mass with the sun. In one 
sense of the word, philosophy knows, and Atheism says, that 
ter is in perpetual motion. But motion here refers to the 
state of matter, and that only on the surface of the earth. It 
is either decomposition, which is continually destroying the 
form of bodies of matter, or re-composition, which renews that 
matter in the same or another form, as the decomposition of 
animal or vegetable substances enters into the composition of 
other bodies. But the motion that upholds the solar system 
is of an entire different kind, and is not a property of matter. 
It operates also to an entire different effect. It operates to 
perpetual preservation, and to prevent any change in the state 
of the system. 

Giving then to matter all the properties which philosophy 
knows it has, or all that Atheism ascribes to it, and can prove, 
and even supposing matter to be eternal, it will not account 
for the system of the universe, or of the solar system, because it 
will not account for motion, and it is motion that preserves it. 
When, therefore, we discover a circumstance of such immense 
importance, that without it the universe could not exist, and 
for which neither matter, nor any, nor all the properties of 
matter cannot account; we are by necessity forced into the 
rational and comfortable belief of the existence of a cause 
superior to matter, and that cause man calls God. 

As to that which is called nature, it is no other than the 
laws by which motion and action of every kind, with respect 
to unintelligible matter, is regulated. And when we speak 
of looking through nature up to nature's God, we speak phi- 
losophically the same rational language as when we speak of 
looking through human laws up to the power that ordained 
them. 



OF THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. 109 

G-od is the power or first cause, nature is the law, and mat- 
ter is the subject acted upon. 

But infidelity, by ascribing every phenomenon to properties 
of matter, conceives a system for which it cannot account, and 
yet it pretends to demonstration. It reasons from what it 
sees on the surface of the earth, but it does not carry itself on 
the solar system existing by motion. It sees upon the surface 
a perpetual decomposition and recomposition of matter. It 
sees that an oak produces an acorn, an acorn an oak, a bird an 
egg, an egg a bird, and so on. In tilings of this kind it sees 
something which it calls natural cause, but none of the causes 
it sees is the cause of that motion which preserves the solar 
system. 

Let us contemplate this wonderful and stupendous system 
consisting of matter and existing by motion. It is not matter 
in a state of rest, nor in a state of decomposition or recomposi- 
tion. It is matter systematized in perpetual orbicular or cir- 
cular motion. As a system that motion is the life of it, as 
animation is life to an animal body; deprive the system of 
motion, and, as a system, it must expire. Who then breathed 
into the system the life of motion ? What power impelled the 
planets to move, since motion is not a property of the matter 
of which they are composed ? If we contemplate the immense 
velocity of this motion, our wonder becomes increased, and 
our adoration enlarges itself in the same proportion. To in- 
stance only one of the planets, that of the earth we inhabit, 
its distance from the sun, the centre of the orbits of all the 
planets, is, according to observations of the transit of the 
planet Venus, about one hundred million miles ; consequently, 
the diameter of the orbit or circle in which the earth moves 
round the sun, is double that distance ; and the measure of 
the circumference of the orbit, taken as three times its diam- 
eter, is six hundred million miles. The earth performs this 
voyage in 365 days and some hours, and consequently moves 
at the rate of more than one million six hundred thousand 
miles every twenty-four hours. 

Where will infidelity, where will Atheism find cause for this 
astonishing velocity of motion, never ceasing, never varying, 
and which is the preservation of the earth in its orbit ? It is 
not by reasoning from an acorn to an oak, or from any change 
in the state of matter on the surface of the earth ; that this 
10 



110 DISCOURSE TO THE SOCIETY - 

can be accounted for. Its cause is not to be found in matter, 
nor in anything we call nature. The Atheist who affects to 
reason, and the fanatic who rejects reason, plunge themselves 
alike into inextricable difficulties. The one perverts the sub- 
lime and enlightening study of natural philosophy into a de- 
formity of absurdities by not reasoning to the end. The other 
loses himself in the obscurity of metaphysical theories, and 
dishonours the Creator, by treating the study of his works 
with contempt. The one is a half-rational of whom there is 
some hope, the other a visionary to whom we must be chari- 
table. 

When at first thought we think of a Creator, our ideas ap- 
pear to us undefined and confused; but if we reason philoso- 
phically, those ideas can be easily arranged and simplified. 
It is a Being whose power is equal to his will. Observe the na- 
ture of the will of man. It is of an infinite quality. We cannot 
conceive the possibility of limits to the will. Observe on the 
other hand, how exceedingly limited is his power of aeting 
compared with the nature of his will. Suppose the power 
equal to the will, and man would be a God. He would will 
himself eternal, and be so. He could will a creation and could 
make it. In this progressive reasoning, we see in the nature 
of the will of man, half of that which we conceive in thinking 
of God; add the other half, and we have the whole idea of a 
being who could make the universe, and sustain it by perpe- 
tual motion ; because he could create that motion. 

We know nothing of the capacity of the will cf animals, 
but we know a great deal of the difference of their powers. 
For example, how numerous arc the degrees, and how immense 
is the difference of power, from a mite to a man. Since then 
everything we sec below us shows a progression of power, 
where is the difficulty in supposing that there is, at the sum- 
mit <>f all fhi/ajx, a Being in whom an infinity of power unites 
with the infinity of the will ? When this simple idea presents 
itself to our mind, we have the idea of a perfect Being that 
man calls God. 

It is comfortable to live under the belief of the existence of 
an infinitely protecting power ; and it is an addition to that 
comfort to know, that such a belief is not a mere conceit of 
the imagination, as many of the theories that are called reli- 
gions are; nor a belief founded only on tradition or received 



OF THEOPHILANTHROPISTS. Ill 

opinion, but is a belief deducible by the action of reason upon 
the things that compose the system of the universe; a belief 
arising out of visible facts : and so demonstrable is the truth 
of this belief, that if no such belief had existed, the person? 
who now controvert it, would have been the persons who 
would have produced and propagated it, because by beginning 
to reason they would have been led on to reason progressively 
to the end, and thereby have discovered that matter and all 
the properties it has, will not account for the system of the 
universe, and that there must necessarily be a superior cause* 

It was the excess to which imaginary systems of religion 
had been carried, and the intolerance, persecutions, burnings, 
and massacres, they occasioned, that first induced certain per- 
sons to propagate infidelity ; thinking, that upon the whole, 
it was better not to believe at all, than to believe a multitude 
of things and complicated creeds, that occasioned so much mis- 
chief in the world. But those days are past; persecution has 
ceased, and the antidote then set up against it has no longer 
even the shadow of an apology. We profess and we proclaim 
in peace, the pure, unmixed, comfortable, and rational belief 
of a God, as manifested to us in the universe. We do this 
without any apprehension of that belief being made a cause of 
persecution, as other beliefs have been, or of suffering persecu- 
tion ourselves. To God, and not to man, are all men to ac- 
count for their belief. 

It has been well observed at the first institution of this so- 
ciety, that the dogmas it professes to believe, are from the 
commencement of the world ; that they are novelties, but are 
confessedly the basis of all systems of religion, however nu- 
merous and contradictory they may be. All men in the out- 
set of the religion they profess are Theophilanthropists. It is 
impossible to form any system of religion without building 
upon those principles, and therefore they are not sectarian 
principles, unless we suppose a sect composed of all the world. 

I have said in the course of this discourse, that the study 
of natural philosophy is a divine study, because it is the study 
of the works of God in the Creation. If we consider theology 
upon this ground, what an extensive field of improvement in 
things both divine and human opens itself before us. All 
the principles of science are of divine origin. It was not 
man that invented the principles on which astronomy, and 



112 DISCOURSE, &e. 

every branch of mathematics are'founded and studied. It was 
not man that gave properties to the circle and triangle. Those 
principles are eternal and. immutable. We see in them the 
unchangeable nature of the Divinity. We see in them im- 
mortality, and immortality existing after the material figures 
that express those prope-rtiesare dissolved in dust. 

The society is at present in its infancy, and its means are 
small ■ but I wish to hold in view the subject I allude to, and 
instead of teaching the philosophical branches of learning as 
ornamental accomplishments only, as they have hitherto been 
taught, to teach them in a manner that shall combine theolo- 
gical knowledge with scientific instruction • to do this to the 
best advantage, some instruments will be necessary for the 
purpose of explanation, of which the society is not yet pos- 
sessed. But as the views of the society extend to public good, 
as well as to that of the individual, and as its principles can 
have no enemies, means may be devised to procure them. 

If we unite to the present instruction, a series of lectures 
on the ground I have mentioned, we shall, in the first place, 
render theology the most delightful and entertaining of all stu- 
dies. In the next place, we shall give scientific instruction to 
those who could not otherwise obtain it. The mechanic of 
every profession will there be taught the mathematical prin- 
ciples necessary to render him a proficient in his art. The 
cultivator will there see developed the principles of vegeta- 
tion ; while, at the same time, they will be led to see the 
hand of God in all these things. 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN, 

ONE OF THE COUNCIL OF FIVE HUNDRED, 

OCCASIONED BY HIS REPORT ON THE PRIESTS, PUBLIC 
WORSHIP, AND THE BELLS. 



Citizen Representative, 

As everything in your report, relating to what you call wor- 
ship, connects itself with the books called the Scriptures, I 
begin with a quotation therefrom. It may serve to give us 
some idea of the fanciful origin and fabrication of those books. 
2 Chronicles, chap, xxxiv. ver. 14, &c. " Hilkiah, the priest, 
found the book of the law of the Lord given by Moses. And 
Hilkiah, the priest, said to Shaphan, the scribe, I have found 
the book of the law in the house of the Lord, and Hilkiah 
delivered the book to Shaphan. And Shaphan, the scribe, 
told the king (Josiah), saying, Hilkiah, the priest, hath given 
me a book." 

This pretended finding was about a thousand years after the 
time that Moses is said to have lived. Before this pretended 
finding there was no such thing practised or known in the 
world as that which is called the law of Moses. This being 
the case, there is every apparent evidence, that the books called 
the books of Moses (and which make the first part of what 
are called the Scriptures) are forgeries contrived between a 
priest and a limb of the law,* Hilkiah, and Shaphan, the scribe, 
a thousand years after Moses is said to have been dead. 

Thus much for the first part of the Bible. Every other 
part is marked with circumstances equally as suspicious. We 
ought, therefore, to be reverentially careful how we ascribe 
books as his word, of which there is no evidence, and against 

* It happens tliat Camille Jordan is a limb of the law. 

10 * (113) 



114 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 

which there is abundant evidence to the contrary, and every 
cause to suspect imposition. 

In your report you speak continually of something by the 
name of worship, and you confine yourself to speak of one 
kind only, as if there were but one, and that one was un- 
questionably true. 

The modes of worship are as various as the sects are numer- 
ous; and amidst all this variety and multiplicity there is but 
one article of belief in which every religion in the world 
agrees. That article has universal sanction. It is the belief 
of a God, or what the Greeks described by the word Theism, 
and the Latins by that of Deism. Upon this one article have 
been erected all the different superstructures of creeds and 
ceremonies continually warring with each other that now exists 
or ever existed. But the men most and best informed upon 
the subject of theology rest themselves upon this universal 
article, and hold all the various superstructures erected there- 
on to be at least doubtful, if not altogether artificial. 

The intellectual part of religion is a private affair between 
every man and his Maker, and in which no third party has any 
right to interfere. The practical part consists in our doing 
good to each other. But since religion has been made into a 
trade, the practical part has been made to consist of ceremonies 
performed by men called Priests ; and the people have been 
amused with ceremonial shows, processions, and bells.* By 

* The precise date of the invention of bells cannot be traced. The 
ancients, it appears from Martial, Juvenal, Suetonius and others, 
had an article named tintinnabula, (usually translated bell,) by which 
the Romans were summoned to their baths and public places. It 
seems most probable, that the description of bells noAv used in 
churches, were invented about the year 400, and generally adopted 
before the commencement of the seventh century. Previous to their 
invention, however, sounding brass, and sometimes basins, were used ; 
and to the present day the Greek church have boards, or iron plates, 
full of holes, which they strike with a hammer, or mallet, to summon 
the priests and others to divine service. We may also remark, that 
in our own country, it was the custom in monasteries to visit every 
person's cell early in the morning, and knock on the door with a 
similar instrument, called a wakening mullet — doubtless no very 
pleasing intrusion on the slumbers of the Monks. 

But, the use of bells having been established, it was found that 
devils were terrified at the sound, and slunk in haste away; in con- 
secpieuce of which it was thought necessary to baptize them in a 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 115 

devices of this kind true religion has been banished ; and such 
means have been found out to extract money even from the 
pockets of the poor, instead of contributing to their relief. 

No man ought to make a living by religion. It is dishonest 
so to do. Religion is not an act that can^ be performed by 
proxy. One person cannot act religion for another. Every 
person must perform it for himself: and all that a priest can 
do is to take from him, he wants nothing but his money, and 
then to riot on his spoil and laugh at his credulity. 

The only people, as a professional sect of Christians, who 
provide for the poor of their society, are people known by the 
name of Quakers. Those men have no priests. They assem- 



solemn manner, which appears to have been first done by Pope John 
XII. a. d. 968. A record of this practice still exists in the Tom of 
Lincoln, and the great Tom at Oxford, &c. 

Having thus laid the foundation of superstitious veneration in the 
hearts of the common people, it cannot be a matter of surprise, that 
they were soon. used at rejoicings, and high festivals in the church 
(for the purpose of driving away any evil spirit which might be in the 
neighbourhood,) as well as on the arrival of any great personage, on 
which occasion the usual fee was one penny. 

One other custom remains to be explained, viz. tolling bells on the 
occasion of any person's death, a custom which, in the manner now 
practised, is totally different from its original institution. It 
appears to have been used as early as the 7th century, when bells 
were first generally used, and to have been denominated the soul bell, 
(as it signified the departing of the soul,) as also, the passing bell. 
Thus Wheatly tells us, "Our church, in imitation of the Saints of 
former ages, calls in the Minister and others who are at hand, to 
assist their brother in his last extremity ; in order to this, she directs 
a bell should be tolled when any one is passing out of this life." 
Durand also says — " When any one is dying, bells must be tolled, 
that the people may put up their prayers for him ; let this be done 
twice for a woman, and thrice for a man. If for a clergyman, as 
many times as he had orders ; and at the conclusion, a peal on all 
the bells, to distinguish the quality of the person for whom the people 
are to put up their prayers." — From these passages it appears evident 
that the bell was to be tolled before a person's decease rather than after, 
as at the present clay; and that the object was to obtain the prayers 
of all who heard it, for the repose of the soul of their departing 
neighbour. At first, when the tolling took place after the person's 
decease, it was deemed superstitious, and was partially disused, 
which was found materially to affect the revenue of the church. The 
priesthood having removed the objection, bells were again tolled, upon 
payment of the customary fees. — Editor. 



116 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 

ble quietly in their places of meetings, and do not disturb their 
neighbours with shows and noise of bells. Religion does not 
unite itself to show and noise. True religion is without either. 
Where there is both, there is no true religion. 

The first object fur inquiry in all cases, more especially in 
matters of religious concern, is TRUTH. We ought to inquire 
into the truth of whatever we are taught to believe, and is it 
certain that the books called the Scriptures stand, in this 
respect, in more than a doubtful predicament? They have 
been held in existence, and in a sort of credit among the com- 
mon class of people, by art, terror, and persecution. They 
have little or no credit among the enlightened part, but they 
have been made the means of encumbering the world wrth a 
numerous priesthood, who have fattened on the labour of the 
people, and consumed the sustenance that ought to be applied 
to the widows and the poor. 

It is a want of feeling to talk of priests and bells whilst so 
many infants are perishing in the hospitals, and aged and 
infirm poor in the streets, from the want of necessaries. The 
abundance that France produces is sufficient for every want, 
if rightly applied ; but priests and bells, like articles of luxury, 
ought to be the least articles of consideration. 

We talk of religion. Let us talk of truth ; for that which 
is not truth, is not worthy the name of religion. 

We see different parts of the world overspread with different 
books, each of which, though contradictory to the other, is 
said, by its partisans, to be of divine origin, and is made a 
rule of faith and practice. In countries under despotic govern- 
ments, where inquiry is always forbidden, the people are con- 
demned to believe as they have been taught by their priests. 
This was for many centuries the case in France ; but this link 
in the chain of slavery is happily broken by the revolution ; 
and, that it may never be riveted again, let us employ a part 
of the liberty we enjoy in scrutinizing into the truth. Let us 
leave behind us some monument, that we have made the cause 
and honour of our Creator an object of our care. If we have 
been imposed upon by the terrors of government and the 
artifice of priests in matters of religion, let us do justice to 
our Creator by examining into the case. His name is too 
sacred to be affixed to anything which is fabulous; and it is 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 117 

our duty to inquire whether we believe, or encourage the peo- 
ple to believe, in fables or in facts. 

It would be a project worthy the situation we are in, to 
invite an inquiry of this kind. We have committees for 
various objects; and, among others, a committee for bells. We 
have institutions, academies, and societies for various purposes ; 
but we Lave none for inquiring into historical truth in matters 
of religious concern. 

They show us certain books which they call the Holy 
Scriptures, the word of God, and other names of that kind ; 
but we ought to know what evidence there is for our believing 
them to be so, and at what time they originated, and in what 
manner. We know that men could make books, and we know 
that artifice and superstition could give them a name; could 
call them sacred. But we ought to be careful that the name 
of our Creator be not abused. Let then all the evidence with 
respect to those books be made a subject of inquiry. If there 
be evidence to warrant our belief of them, let us encourage, 
the propagation of it; but if not, let us be careful not to pro- 
mote the cause of delusion and falsehood. 

I have already spoken of the Quakers — that they have no 
priests, no bells — and that they are remarkable for their care 
of the poor of their society. They are equally as remarkable 
for the education of their children. I am a descendant of a 
family of that profession ; my father was a Quaker ; and I pre- 
sume I may be admitted an evidence of what I assert* The 
seeds of good principles, and the literary means of advance- 
ment in the world, are laid in early life. Instead, therefore, 
of consuming the substance of the nation upon priests, whose 
life at best is a life of idleness, let us think of providing for 
the education of those who have not the means of doing it 
themselves. One good school-master is of more use than a 
hundred priests. 

If we look back at what was the condition of France under 
the ancient regime, we cannot acquit the priests of corrupting 
the morals of the nation. Their pretended celibacy led them 
to carry debauchery and domestic infidelity into every family 
where they could gain admission ; and their blasphemous pre- 
tensions to forgive sins, encouraged the commission of them. 
Why has the Revolution of France been stained with crimes 
which the Revolution of the United States of America was 



118 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 

not ? Men are physically the same in all countries : it is 
education that makes them different. Accustom a people to 
believe that priests, or any other class of men, can forgive 
sins, and you will have sins in abundance. 

I come now to speak more particularly to the object of your 
report. 

You claim a privilege incompatible with the constitution 
and with rights. The constitution protects equally, as it 
ought to do, every profession of religion ; it gives no exclusive 
privilege to any. The churches are the common property of 
all the people ; they are national goods, and cannot be given 
exclusively to any one profession, because the right does not 
exist of giving to any one that which appertains to all. It 
would be consistent with right that the churches be sold, and 
the money arising therefrom be invested as a fund for the 
education of children of poor parents of every profession, and, 
if more than sufficient for this purpose, that the surplus be 
appropriated to the support of the aged poor. After this, 
every profession can erect its own place of worship, if it choose 
— support its own priests, if it choose to have any — or per- 
form its worship without priests, as the Quakers do. 

As to bells, they are a public nuisance. If one profession 
is to have bells, another has the right to use the instruments 
of the same kind, or any other noisy instrument. Some may 
choose to meet at the sound of cannon, another at the beat of 
drum, another at the sound of trumpets, and so on, until the 
whole becomes a scene of general confusion. But if we per- 
mit ourselves to think of the state of the sick, and the many 
sleepless nights and days they undergo, we shall feel the im- 
propriety of increasing their distress by the noise of bells, or 
any other noisy instruments. 

Quiet and private domestic devotion neither offends nor 
incommodes anybody; and the constitution has wisely guarded 
against the use of externals. Bells come under this descrip- 
tions and public procession, still more so — Streets and highways 
are for the accommodation of persons following their several 
occupations, and no sectary has a right to incommode them 
— If any one has, every other has the same; and the meeting 
of various and contradictory processions would be tumultuous. 
Those who formed the constitution had wisely reflected upon 
these cases; and, whilst they were careful to preserve the 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 119 

equal right of every one, they restrained every one from giving 
offence, or incommoding another. 

•Men who, through a long and tumultuous scene, have lived 
in retirement, as you have done, may think, when they arrive 
at power, that nothing is more easy than to put the world to 
rights in an instant ; they form to themselves gay ideas at the 
success of their projects ; but they forget to contemplate the 
difficulties that attend them, and the dangers with which they 
are pregnant. Alas ! nothing is so easy as to deceive one's 
self. Did all men think as you think, or as you say, your 
plan would need no advocate, because it would have no op-' 
poser; but there are millions who think differently to you, 
and who are determined to be neither the dupes nor the slaves 
of error or design. 

It is your good fortune to arrive at power, when the sun- 
shine of prosperity is breathing forth after a long and stormy 
night. The firmness of your colleagues, and of those you 
have succeeded — the unabated energy of the Directory, and 
the unequalled bravery of the armies of the Republic, have 
made the way smooth and easy to you. If you look back at 
the difficulties that existed when the constitution commenced, 
you cannot but be confounded with admiration at the difference 
between that time and now. At that moment, the Directory 
were placed like the forlorn hope of an army, but you were in 
safe retirement. They occupied the post of honourable 
danger, and they have merited well of their country. 

You talk of justice and benevolence, but you begin at the 
wrong end. The defenders of your country, and the deplor- 
able state of the poor, are objects of prior consideration to 
priests and bells and gaudy processions. 

You talk of peace, but your manner of talking of it em- 
barrasses the Directory in making it, and serves to prevent it. 
Had you been an actor in all the scenes of government from 
its commencement, you would have been too well informed to 
have brought forward projects that operate to encourage the 
enemy. When you arrived at a share in the government, you 
found everything tending to a prosperous issue. A series of 
victories unequalled in the world, and in the obtaining of which 
you had no share, preceded your arrival. Every enemy but 
one was subdued; and that one (the Hanoverian government 
of England), deprived of every hope, and a bankrupt in all 



120 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 

its resources, was suing for peace. In such a state of things, 
no new question that might tend to agitate and anarchise the 
interior, ought to have had place; and the project you propose, 
tends directly to that end. 

Whilst France was a monarchy, and under the government 
of those things called kings and priests, England could always 
defeat her; but since France has RISEN TO BE A RE- 
PUBLIC, the Government of England crouches beneath 
her, so great is the difference between a government of kings 
and priests, and that which is founded on the system of re- 
presentation. But, could the government of England find a 
way, under the sanction of your report, to inundate France 
with a flood of emigrant priests, she would find also the way 
to domineer as before ; she would retrieve her shattered 
finances at your expense, and the ringing of the bells would 
be the tocsin of your downfall. 

Did peace consist in nothing but the cessation of war, it 
would not be difficult ; but the terms are yet to be arranged ; 
and those terms will be better or worse, in proportion as France 
and her councils be united or divided. That the government 
of England counts much upon your report, and upon others 
of a similar tendency, is what the writer of this letter, who 
knows that government well, has no doubt. You are but 
new on the theatre of government, and you ought to suspect 
yourself of misjudging; the experience of those who have 
gone before you, should be of some service to you. 

But if, in consequence of such measures as you propose, 
you put it out of the power of the Directory to make a good 
peace, and to accept of terms you would afterwards reprobate, 
it is yourselves that must bear the censure. 

You conclude your report by the following address to your 
colleagues : — 

" Let us hasten, representatives of the people ! to affix to 
these tutelary laws the seal of our unanimous approbation. 
All our fellow-citizens will learn to cherish political liberty 
from the enjoyment of religious liberty : you will have broken 
the most powerful arm of your enemies; you will have sur- 
rounded this assembly with the most impregnable rampart — 
confidence, and the people's love. ! my colleagues ! how 
desirable is that popularity which is the offspring of good 
laws ! What a consolation it will be to us hereafter, when 



LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 121 

returned to our own firesides, to hear from the mouths of our 
fellow-citizens, these simple expressions — Blessings reward 
you, men of peace! you have restored to us our temples — our 
ministers — the liberty of adoring the God of our fathers ; you 
have recalled harmony to our families — morality to our 
hearts : you have made us adore the legislature and respect 
all its laws !" 

Is it possible, citizen-representative, that you can be serious 
in this address ? Were the lives of the priests under the an- 
cient regime such as to justify anything you say of them I 
Were not all France convinced of their immorality ? Were 
they not considered as the patrons of debauchery and domestic 
infidelity, and not as the patrons of morals ? What was their 
pretended celibacy but perpetual adultery ? What was their 
blasphemous pretensions to forgive sins, but an encouragement 
to the commission of them, and a love for their own ? Do 
you want to lead again into France all the vices of which they 
have been the patrons, and to overspread the republic with 
English pensioners ? It is cheaper to corrupt than to conquer; 
and the English government, unable to conquer, will stoop to 
corrupt. Arrogance and meanness, though in appearance op- 
posite, are vices of the same heart. 

Instead of concluding in the manner you have done, you 
ought rather to have said, 

" ! my colleagues ! we are arrived at a glorious period — 
a period that promises more than we. could have expected, and 
all that we could have wished. Let us hasten to take into 
consideration the honours and rewards due to our brave de- 
fenders. Let us hasten to give encouragement to agriculture 
and manufactures, that commerce may reinstate itself, and our 
people have employment. Let us review the condition of the 
suffering poor, and wipe from our country the reproach of for- 
getting them. Let us devise means to establish schools of in- 
struction, that we may banish the ignorance that the ancient 
regime of kings and priests had spread among the people — 
Let us propagate morality, unfettered by superstition — Let us 
cultivate justice and benevolence, that the Grod of our fathers 
may bless us. The helpless infant and the aged poor cry to 
us to remember them — Let not wretchedness be seen in our 
streets — Let France exhibit to the world the glorious example 
of expelling ignorance and misery together. 
11 



122 LETTER TO CAMILLE JORDAN. 

' u Let these, my virtuous colleagues ! be the subject of our 
care, that, when we return among our fellow-citizens, they may 
say, Worthy representatives! you have done well. You have 
done justice and honour to our brave defenders. You have 
encouraged agriculture — cherished our decayed manufactures 
— given new life to commerce, and employment to our 
people. You have removed from our country the reproach 
of forgetting the 'poor — You have caused the cry of the orphan 
to cease — You have wiped the tear from the eye of the suffering 
mother — You have given comfort to the aged and infirm — 
You have penetrated into the gloomy recesses of wretchedness, 
and have banished it. Welcome among us, ye brave and 
virtuous representatives ! and may your example be followed 
by your successors V\ 

Thomas Paine. 
Paris, 1797. 



AN 
EXAMINATION 

OF THE 

PASSAGES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, 
QUOTED FROM THE OLD 

AND CALLED 

PROPHECIES CONCERNING JESUS CHRIST. 



TO WHICH IS PREFIXED, 

AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 

ALSO, 

AN APPENDIX, 

CONTAINING THE 

CONTRADICTORY DOCTRINES BETWEEN MATTHEW AND MARK; 

AND MY 

"PRIVATE THOUGHTS ON A FUTURE STATE." 



(123) 



PREFACE. 



TO THE MINISTERS AND PREACHERS OF ALL DENOMINATIONS 
OF RELIGION. 



It is the duty of every man, as far as bis ability extends, 
to detect and expose delusion and error. But nature has not 
given to every one a talent for the purpose ; and among those 
to whom such a talent is given, there is often a want of dispo- 
sition or of courage to do it. 

The world, or more properly speaking, that small part of it 
called Christendom, or the Christian World, has been amused 
for more than a thousand years with accounts of Prophecies in 
the Old Testament, about the coming of the person called Je- 
sus Christ, and thousands of sermons have been preached, and 
volumes written to make man believe it. 

In the following treatise, I have examined all the passages 
in the New Testament, quoted from the Old, and called pro- 
phecies concerning Jesus Christ, and I find no such thing as 
a prophecy of any such person, and I deny there are any. The 
passages all relate to circumstances the Jewish nation was in 
at the time they were written or spoken, and not to anything 
that was or was not to happen in the world several hundred 
years afterwards ; and I have shown what the circumstances 
were, to which the passages apply or refer. I have given 
chapter and verse for everything I have said, and have not 
gone out of the books of the Old and New Testament for evi- 
dence that the passages are not prophecies of the person called 
Jesus Christ. 

The prejudice of unfounded belief often degenerates into 
the prejudice of custom, and becomes, at last, rank hypocrisy. 
When men, from custom or fashion, or any worldly motive, 
profess or protend to believe what they do not believe, nor 
can give any reason for believing, they unship the helm of 
their morality • and being no longer honest to their own 

(125) 



126 PREFACE. 

minds, they feel no moral difficulty in being unjust to others. 
It is from the influence of this vice, hypocrisy, that we see so 
many Church and Meeting-going professors and pretenders to 
religion, so full of trick and deceit in their dealings, and so 
loose in the performance of their engagements, that they are 
not to be trusted farther than the laws of the country will 
bind them. Morality has no hold on their minds, no re- 
straint on their actions. 

One set of preachers make salvation to consist in believing. 
They tell their congregations, that if they believe in Christ, 
their sins shall be forgiven. This, in the first place, is an en- 
couragement to sin, in a similar manner as when a prodigal 
young fellow is told his father will pay all his debts, he runs 
into debt the faster, and becomes the more extravagant : Dad- 
dy, says he, pays all, and on he goes. Just so in the other 
case, Christ pays all^ and on goes the sinner. 

In the next place, the doctrine these men preach is not true. 
The New Testament rests itself for credibility and testimony 
on what are called prophecies in the Old Testament, of the 
person called Jesus Christ; and if there are no such thing as 
prophecies of an) 7 such person in the Old Testament, the New 
Testament is a forgery of the councils of Nice and Laodicea, 
and the faith founded thereon, delusion and falsehood.* 

Another set of preachers tell their congregations that God 
predestinated and selected from all eternit}*, a certain number 
to be saved, and a certain number to be damned eternally. If 
this were true, the day of judgment is past : their preaching 
is in vain, and they had better work at some useful calling for 
their livelihood. 

This doctrine, also, like the former, hath a direct tendency 
to demoralize mankind. Can a bad man be reformed by tell- 
ing him that if he is one of those who was decreed to be 
damned before he was born, his reformation will do him no 
good ; and if he was decreed to be saved, he will be saved 
whether he believes it or not j for this is the result of the doc- 

* The councils of Nice and Laodicea were held about 350 years 
after the time Christ is said to have lived; and the books "that now 

compose the New Testament, were then voted for by yeas and .nays, 
as we now vote a law. A great ninny that were offered had a ma- 
jority of nays, and were rejected. This is the way the New Testa- 
ment came into bcinjz;. 



PREFACE. 127 

trine. Such preaching and such preachers do injury to the 
moral world. They had better be at the plough. 

As in my political works my motive and object have been 
to give man an elevated sense of his own character, and free 
him from the slavish and superstitious absurdity of monarchy 
and hereditary government, so in my publications on religious 
subjects my endeavours have been directed to bring man to a right 
use of the reason that Grod has given him ; to impress on him the 
great principles of divine morality, justice, mercy, and a bene- 
volent disposition to all men, and to all creatures, and to in- 
spire in him a spirit of trust, confidence, and consolation in 
his Creator, unshackled by the fables of books pretending to 
be the word of God. 

Thomas Paine. 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 



As a great deal is said in the New Testament about dreams, 
it is first necessary to explain the nature of dream, and to 
show by what operation of the mind a dream is produced dur- 
ing sleep. When this is understood we shall be the better 
enabled to judge whether any reliance can be placed upon 
them; and consequently, whether the several matters in the 
New Testament related of dreams deserve the credit which 
the writers of that book and priests and commentators ascribe 
to them. 

In order to understand the nature of dreams, or of that 
which passes in ideal vision during a state of sleep, it is first 
necessary to understand the composition and decomposition of 
the human mind. 

The three great faculties of the mind are Imagination, 
Judgment, and Memory. Every action of the mind comes, 
under one or other of these faculties. In a state of wakeful- 
ness, as in the day-time, these three faculties are all active ; 
but that is seldom the case in sleep, and never perfectly; and 
this is the cause that our dreams are not so regular and 
rational as our waking thoughts. 

The seat of that collection of powers or faculties, that con- 
stitute what is called the mind, is in the brain. There is not, 
and cannot be, any visible demonstration of this anatomically, 
but accidents happening to living persons, show it to be so. 
An injury done to the brain by a fracture of the skull will 
sometimes change a wise man mto a, childish idiot; a being 
without mind. But so careful has nature been of that sanctum 
sanctorum of man, the brain, that of all the external accidents 
to which humanity is Bubject, this happens the most seldom. 
But we often sec it happening by long and habitual intempe- 
rance. 

Wh ether those three faculties o«cupv distinct apartments 

(128) 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 129 

of the brain, is known only to that Almighty power that 
formed and organized it. We can see the external effects of 
muscular motion in all the members of the body, though its 
primum mobile, or first moving cause, is unknown to man. 
Our external motions are sometimes the effect of intention, 
and sometimes not. If we are sitting and intend to rise, or 
standing and intend to sit, or to walk, the limbs obey that 
intention as if they heard the order given. But we make a 
thousand motions every day, and that as well waking as sleep- 
ing, that have no prior intention to direct them. Each mem- 
ber acts as if it had a will or mind of its own. Man governs 
the whole when he pleases to govern, but in the interims the 
several parts, like little suburbs, govern themselves without 
consulting the sovereign. 

But all these motions, whatever be the generating cause, are 
external and visible. But with respect to the brain, no ocular 
observation can be made upon it. All is mystery; all is 
darkness in that womb of thought. 

Whether the brain is a mass of matter in continual rest ; 
whether it has a vibrating pulsative motion, or a heaving and 
falling motion, like matter in fermentation ; whether different 
parts of the brain have different motions according to the 
faculty that is employed, be it the imagination, the judgment, 
or the memory, man knows nothing of it. He knows not the 
cause of his own wit. His own brain conceals it from him. 

Comparing invisible by visible things, as metaphysical can 
sometimes be compared to physical things, the operations of 
those distinct and several faculties have some resemblance to 
the mechanism of a watch. The main spring which puts all 
in motion, corresponds to the imagination ; the pendulum or 
balance, which corrects and regulates that motion, corresponds 
to the judgment ; and the hand and dial, like the memory, 
record the operations. 

Now in proportion as these several faculties sleep, slumber, 
or keep awake, during the continuance of a dream, in that 
proportion the dream will be reasonable or frantic, remembered 
or forgotten. 

If there is any faculty in mental man that never sleeps, it 
is that volatile thing the imagination : the case is different 
with the judgment and memory. The sedate and sober con- 
stitution of the judgment easily disposes it to rest; and as to 

VOL. I. — 9 



130 AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 

the memory, it records in silence, and is active only when it is 
called upon. 

That the judgment soon goes to sleep may be perceived by 
our sometimes beginning to dream before we are fully asleep 
ourselves. Some random thought runs in the mind, and we 
start, as it were, into recollection that we are dreaming between 
sleeping and waking. 

If the judgment sleeps whilst the imagination keeps awake, 
the dream will be a riotous assemblage of mis-shapen images 
and ranting ideas, and the more active the imagination is, the 
wilder the dream will be. The most inconsistent and the 
most impossible things will appear right; because that faculty, 
whose province it is to keep order, is in a state of absence. 
The master of the school is gone out, and the boys are in an 
uproar. 

If the memory sleeps, we shall have no other knowledge of 
the dream than that we have dreamt, without knowing what it 
was about. In this case it is sensation, rather than recollec- 
tion, that acts. The dream has given us some sense of pain 
or trouble, and we feel it as a hurt, rather than remember it 
as a vision. 

If memory only slumbers, we shall have a faint remem- 
brance of the dream, and after a few minutes it will sometimes 
happen that the principal passages of the dream will occur to 
us more fully. The cause of this is, that the memory will 
sometimes continue slumbering or sleeping after we are awake 
ourselves, and that so fully, that it may, and sometimes does 
happen, that we do not immediately recollect where we are, 
nor what we have been about, or have to do. But when the 
memory starts into wakefulness, it brings the knowledge of 
these things back upon us, like a flood of light, and sometimes 
the dream with it. 

But the most curious circumstance of the mind in a state 
of dream, is the power it has to become the agent of every 
person, character and thing, of which it dreams. It carries 
on conversation with several, asks questions, hears answers, 
gives and receives information, and it acts all these parts 
itself. 

But however various and eccentric the imagination may be 
in the creation of images and ideas, it cannot supply the 
place of memory, with respect to things that are forgotten 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 131 

when we are awake. For example, if we have forgotten the 
name of a person, and dream of seeing him and asking him 
his name, he cannot tell it; for it is ourselves asking ourselves 
the question. 

But though the imagination cannot supply the place of real 
memory, it has the wild faculty of counterfeiting memory. It 
dreams of persons it never knew, and talks with them as if it 
remembered them as old acquaintances. It relates circumstances 
that never happened, and tells them as if they had happened. 
It goes to places that never existed, and knows where all the 
streets and houses are, as if it had been there before. The 
scenes it creates often appear as scenes remembered. It will 
sometimes act a dream within a dream, and, in the delusion 
of dreaming, tell a dream it never dreame.d, and tell it as if it 
was from memory. It may also be remarked, that the imagin- 
ation in a dream, has no idea of time, as time. It counts only 
by circumstances j and if a succession of circumstances pass 
in a dream that would require a great length of time to accom- 
plish them, it will appear to the dreamer that a length of time 
equal thereto has passed also. 

As this is the state of the mind in dream, it may rationally 
be said that every person is mad once in twenty-four hours, 
for were he to act in the day as he dreams in the night, he 
would be confined for a lunatic. In a state of wakefulness, 
those three faculties being all alive, and acting in union, con- 
stitute the rational man. In dreams it is otherwise, and there- 
fore that state which is called insanity, appears to be no other 
than a disunion of those faculties, and a cessation of the judg- 
ment, during wakefulness, that we so often experience during 
sleep; and idiocy, into which some persons have fallen, is 
that cessation of all the faculties of which we can be sensible, 
when we happen to wake before our memory. 

In this view of the mind, how absurd is it to place reliance 
upon dreams, and how much more absurd to make them a 
foundation for religion ; yet the belief that Jesus Christ is the 
Son of God, begotten by the Holy Ghost, a being never heard 
of before, stands on the story of an old man's dream. " And 
behold the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, 
saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not thou to take unto 
thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of 
the Holy Ghost,' 9 — Matt, ch. i. ver. 20. 



132 AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 

After this we have the childish stories of three or four other 
dreams j about Joseph going into Egypt; about his coming back 
again ; about this, and about that, and this story of dreams 
has thrown Europe into a dream for more than a thousand 
years. All the efforts that nature, reason, and conscience 
have made to awaken man from it, have been ascribed by 
priestcraft and superstition to the workings of the devil, and had 
it not been for the American revolution, which by establishing 
the universal right of conscience, first opened the way to free 
discussion, and for the French revolution which followed, this 
religion of dreams had continued to be preached, and that 
after it had ceased to be believed. Those who preached it 
and did not believe it, still believed the delusion necessary. 
They were not bold enough to be honest, nor honest enough 
to be bold. 

[Every new religion, like a new play, requires a new appa- 
ratus of dresses and machinery, to fit the new characters it 
creates. The story of Christ in the New Testament brings a 
new being upon the stage, which it calls the Holy Ghost; and 
the story of Abraham, the father of the Jews, in the Old Tes- 
tament, gives existence to a new order of beings it calls An- 
gels. — There was no Holy Ghost before the time of Christ, 
nor Angels before the time of Abraham. — We hear nothing 
of these winged gentlemen, till more than two thousand years, 
according to the Bible chronology, from the time they say the 
heavens, the earth, and all therein were made : — After this, they 
hop about as thick as birds in a grove : — The first we hear of 
pays his addresses to Hagar in the wilderness; then three of 
them visit Sarah ; another wrestles a fall with Jacob ; and 
these birds of passage having found their way to earth and 
back, are continually coming and going. They eat and drink, 
and up again to heaven. — What the}' do with the food they 
carry away, the Bible does not tell us. — Perhaps they do as 
the birds do. * * * * * * 

One would think that a system loaded with such gross and 
vulgar absurdities as scripture religion is, could never have 
obtained credit; yet we have seen what priestcraft and fana- 
ticism could do, and credulity believe. 

From angels in the Old Testament, we get to prophets, to 
witches, to seers of visions, and dreamers of dreams, and some- 
times we are told, as in 2 Sam. -chap. ix. ver. 15, that God whig- 



AN ESSAY ON DREAM. 133 

pers in the ear — At other times we are not told how the impulse 
was given, or whether sleeping or waking — In 2 Sam. chap, 
xxiv. ver. 1, it is said, "And again the anger of the Lord 
was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them 
to say, Go number Israel and Judah." — And in 1 Chro. 
chap. xxi. ver. 1, when the same story is again related, it is 
said, " and Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David 
to number Israel." 

Whether this was done sleeping or waking, we are not told, 
but it seems that David, whom they call " a man after God's 
own heart," did not know by what spirit he was moved ; and 
as to the men called inspired penmen, they agree so well about 
the matter, that in one book they say that it was God, and in 
the other that it was the Devil. 

The idea that writers of the Old Testament had of a God 
was boisterous, contemptible, and vulgar. — They make him the 
Mars of the Jews, the fighting God of Israel, the conjuring 
God of their Priests and Prophets. — They tell as many fables 
of him as the Greeks told of Hercules. * * * 

They make their God to say exultingly, " I 'will get me hon- 
our upon Pharaoh, and upon his Host, upon his Chariots and 
upon his Horsemen." — And that he may keep his word, they 
make him set a trap in the Red Sea, in the dead of the night, 
for Pharaoh, his host, and his horses, and drown them as a rat- 
catcher would do so many rats — Great honour indeed ! the story 
of Jack the Giant-killer is better told ! 

They pit him against the Egyptian magicians to conjure 
with him ; the three first essays are a dead match — Each party 
turns his rod into a serpent, the rivers into blood, and creates 
frogs; but upon the fourth, the God of the Israelites obtains 
the laurel, he covers them all over with lice ! — The Egyptian 
magicians cannot do the same, and this lousy triumph proclaims 
the victory ! 

They make their God to rain fire and brimstone upon Sodom 
and Gomorrah, and belch fire and smoke upon Mount Sinai, as 
if he Was the Pinto of the lower regions. They make him 
salt up Lot's wife like pickled pork ; they make him pass like 
Shakspeure's Queen Mab into the brain of their priests, pro- 
phets, and prophetesses, and tickle them into dreams, and after 
making him play all kind of tricks, they confound him with 
Satan, and leave us at a loss to know what God they meant ! 
12 



134 AN ESSAY ON BREAM. 

This is the descriptive God of the Old Testament; and as 
to the New, though the authors of it have varied the scene, 
they have continued the vulgarity. 

Is man ever to be the dupe of priestcraft, the slave of super- 
stition ? Is he never to have just ideas of his Creator ? It 
is better not to believe there is a God, than to believe of him 
falsely. When we behold the mighty universe that surrounds 
us, and dart our contemplation into the eternity of space, 
filled with innumerable orbs, revolving in eternal harmony, 
how paltry must the tales of the Old and New Testaments, 
profanely called the word of God, appear to thoughtful man ! 
The stupendous wisdom, and unerring order, that reign and 
govern throughout this wondrous whole, and call us to reflec- 
tion, put to shame the Bible ! — The God of eternity, and of all 
that is real, is not the God of passing dreams, and shadows of 
man's imagination ! The God of truth, is not the God of fable ; 
the belief of a God begotten and a God crucified, is a God 
blasphemed —It is making a profane use of reason.]* 

I shall conclude this Essay on Dream with the two first 
verses of the 34th chapter of Ecclesiasticus, one of the books 
of the Apocrypha. 

" The hopes of a man void of understanding are vain and 
false : and dreams lift vp fools — Whoso rega.rdeth dreams is 
like him that catcheth at a shadow ) and folloioeth after the 
wind." 

I now proceed to an examination of the passages in the 
Bible, called prophecies of the coming of Christ, and to show 
there are no prophecies of any such person. That the pass- 
ages clandestinely styled prophecies are not prophecies, and 
that they refer to circumstances the Jewish nation was in at 
the time they were written or spoken, and not to any distance 
of future time or person. 

* Mr. Paine must have been in an ill humour when he wrote the 
passage enclosed in crotchets ; and probably on reviewing it, and dis- 
covering exceptionable clauses, was induced to reject the whole, as 
it does not appear in the edition published by himself. But having 
obtained the original in the hand-writing of Mr. P. and deeming some 
of the remarks worthy of being preserved, I have thought proper to 
restore the passage, with the exception of the objectionable parts. — 
Editor. 



Ass 

EXAMINATION 

OF THE 

PASSAGES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, 

QUOTED FROM THE OLD, AND CALLED PROPHECIES OF THE COMING OF 

JESUS CHRIST. 



[This work was first published by Mr. Paine, at New- 
York, in 1807, and was the last of his writings edited by 
himself. It is evidently extracted from his answer to the 
bishop of Llandaff, or from his third part of the Age of 
Reason, both of which, it appears by his will, he left in 
manuscript. The term, " The Bishop," occurs in this exami- 
nation six times, without designating what bishop is meant. 
Of all the replies to his second part of the Age of Reason, 
that of bishop Watson was the only one to which he paid par- 
ticular attention j and he is, no doubt, the person here alluded 
to. Bishop's Watson's apology for the Bible had been pub- 
lished some years before Mr. P. left France, and the latter 
composed his answer to it, and also his third part of the Age 
of Reason, while in that country. 

When Mr. Paine arrived in America, and found that liberal 
opinions on religion were in disrepute, through the influence 
of hypocrisy and superstition, he declined publishing the entire 
of the works which he had prepared • observing that " an 
author might lose the credit he had acquired by writing too 
much/' He however gave to the public the examination 
before us, in a pamphlet form. But the apathy which appeared 
to prevail at that time in regard to religious inquir} r , fully 
determined him to discontinue the publication of his theo- 
logical writings. In this case, taking only a portion of one 

(135) 



136 EXAMINATION OF 

of the works before mentioned, he chose a title adapted to the 
particular part selected.] 

The passages called Prophecies of, or concerning Jesus 
Christ, in the Old Testament, may be classed under the two 
following heads : — 

First, those referred to in the four books of the New Testa- 
ment, called the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John. 

Secondly, those which translators and commentators have, 
of their own imagination, erected into prophecies, and dubbed 
with that title at the head of the several chapters of the Old 
Testament. Of these it is scarcely worth while to waste time, 
ink, and paper upon ; I shall therefore confine myself chiefly 
to those referred to in the aforesaid four books of the New 
Testament. If I show that these are not prophecies of the 
person called Jesus Christ, nor have reference to any such 
person, it will be perfectly needless to combat those which 
translators or the Church have invented, and for which they 
had no other authority than their own imagination. 

I begin with the book called the Gospel according to St. 
Matthew. 

In the first chap. ver. 18, it is said, " Now the birth of 
Jesus Christ was on this wise; when his mother Mary was 
espoused to Joseph, before they came together, SHE WAS FOUND 
with child by the holy ghost." — This is going a little 
too fast; because to make this verse agree with the next it 
should have said no more than that she was found with child ; 
for the next verse says, " Then Joseph her husband being a 
just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was 
minded to put her away privily T— Consequently Joseph had 
found out no more than that she was with child, and he knew 
it was not by himself. 

V. 20. " And while he thought of these things (that is, 
whether he should put her away privily, or make a public 
example of her), behold the Angel of the Lord appeared to 
him IN A dream (that is, Joseph dreamed that an angel ap- 
peared unto him), saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear 
not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived 
in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a 



THE PROPHECIES. 137 

son, and thou shall call his name Jesus ; for he shall save his 
people from their sins." 

Now, without entering into any discussion upon the merits 
or demerits of the account here given, it is proper to observe, 
that it has no higher authority than that of a dream ; for it 
is impossible for a man to behold anything in a dream, but 
that which he dreams of. I ask not, therefore, whether 
Joseph (if there was such a man) had such a dream or not; 
because, admitting he had, it proves nothing. So wonder- 
ful and rational is the faculty of the mind in dreams that it 
acts the part of all the characters its imagination creates, and 
what it thinks it hears from any of them, is no other than 
what the roving rapidity of its own imagination invents. It 
is therefore nothing to me what Joseph dreamed of; whether 
of the fidelity or infidelity of his wife. — I pay no regard to 
my own dreams, and I should be weak indeed to put faith in 
the dreams of another. 

The verses that follow those I have quoted, are the words 
of the writer of the book of Matthew. " Now (says he), all 
this (that is all this dreaming and this pregnancy) was done 
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the 
Prophet, saying, 

" Behold a, virgin shall be loith child, and shall bring forth 
a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being 
interpreted, is, God with us." 

This passage is in Isaiah, chap. vii. ver. 14, and the writer 
of the book of Matthew endeavours to make his readers believe 
that this passage is a prophecy of the person called Jesus 
Christ. It is no such thing — and I go to show it is not. But 
it is first necessary that I explain the occasion of these words 
being spoken by Isaiah ; the reader will then easily perceive, 
that so far from their being a prophecy of Jesus Christ, they 
have not the least reference to such a person, or anything that 
could happen in the time that Christ is said to have lived — 
which was about seven hundred years after the time of Isaiah. 
The case is this : 

On the death of Solomon the Jewish nation split into two 
monarchies; one called the kingdom of Judah, the capital of 
which was Jerusalem • the other the kingdom of Israel, the 
capital of which was Samaria. The kingdom of Judah fol- 
lowed the line of David, and the kingdom of Israel that of 
12* 



138 EXAMINATION OF 

Saul; and these two rival monarchies frequently carried on 
fierce wars against each other. 

At the time Ahaz was king of Judah, which was in the 
time of Tsaiah, Pekah was king of Israel : and Pekah joined 
himself to Rezin, king of Syria, to make war against Ahaz, 
king of Judah ; and these two kings marched a confederated 
and powerful army against Jerusalem. Ahaz and his people 
became alarmed at the danger, and " their hearts icere moral 
os the trees of the wood are moved with the windy Isaiah, 
chap. vii. ver. 3. 

In this perilous situation of things, Isaiah addressed him- 
self to Ahaz, and assures him, in the name of the Lord (the 
cant phrase of all the prophets), that these two kings should 
not succeed against him ; and to assure him that this should 
be the case (the case was however directly contrary*) tells 
Ahaz to ask a sign of the Lord. This Ahaz declined doing, 
giving as a reason, that he would not tempt the Lord : upon 
which Isaiah, who pretends to be sent from God, says, ver. 
14, " Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign, behold 
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son — Butter and honey 
shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil and choose 
the good — For before the child shall know to refuse the evil 
and choose the good, the land which thou abhorrest shall be 
forsaken of both her kings" — meaning the king of Israel and 
the king of Syria, who were marching against him. 

Here then is the sign, which was to be the birth of a child, 
and that child a son; and here also is the time limited for the 
accomplishment of the sign, namely, before the child should 
know to refuse the evil and choose the good. 

The thing, therefore, to be a sign of success to Ahaz must 

* Chron. chap, xxviii. ver. 1st. Ahaz was twenty years old when he 
began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, but he did 
not that which was right in the sight of the Lord. — Ver. 5. Where- 
fore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria, 
and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them 
captive and brought them to Damascus : and he was also delivered 
into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great 
slaughter. 

Ver. 6. And Pekah (king of Israel) slew in Judah an hundred and 
twenty thousand in one day. — Ver. 8. And the children of Israel 
carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand women, 
sons and (Aaughters. 



THE PROPHECIES. 139 

be something that would take place before the event of the 
battle then pending between him and the two kings could be 
known. A thing to be a sign must precede the thing signified. 
The sign of rain must be before the rain. 

It would have been mockery and insulting nonsense for 
Isaiah to have assured Ahaz as a sign that these two kings 
should not prevail against him ; that a child should be born 
seven hundred years after he was dead ; and that before the 
child so born should know to refuse the evil and choose the 
good, he, Ahaz, should be delivered from the danger he was 
then immediately threatened with. 

But the case is, that the child of which Isaiah speaks was 
his own child, with which his wife or his mistress was then 
pregnant; for he says in the next chapter, v. 2, " And I took 
unto me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest, and 
Zechariah the son of Jeberechiah ; and I went unto the pro- 
phetess, and she conceived and bare a son :" and he says at 
ver. 18 of the same chapter, " Behold I and the children whom 
the Lord hath given me are for signs and for wonders in 
Israel." 

It may not be improper here to observe, that the word trans- 
lated a virgin in Isaiah, does not signify a virgin in Hebrew, 
but merely a young icoman. The tense also is falsified in the 
translation. Levi gives the Hebrew text of the 14th ver. of 
the 7th chap, of Isaiah, and the translation in English with it 
— " Behold a young icoman is with child and beareth a son." 
The expression, says he, is in the present tense. This trans- 
lation agrees with the other circumstances related of the birth 
of this child, which was to be a sign to Ahaz. But as the 
true translation could not have been imposed upon the world 
as a prophecy of a child to be born seven hundred years after- 
wards, the Christian translators have falsified the original; 
and instead of making Isaiah to say, behold a young woman 
is with child and bearcth a son — they make him to say, behold 
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. It is however only 
necessary for a person to read the 7th and 8th chapters of 
Isaiah, and he will be convinced that the passage in question 
is no prophecy of the person called Jesus Christ. I pass on to 
the second passage quoted from the Old Testament by the 
New, as a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

Matthew, chap. ii. ver. 1. " Now when Jesus was born in 



140 EXAMINATION OF 

Bethlehem of Judah, in the days of Herod the king, behold 
there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem — saying, 
Where is he that is born king of the Jews ? for we have seen 
his star in the east, and are come to worship him. When 
Herod, the king, heard these things, he was troubled, and all 
Jerusalem with him — and when he had gathered all the chief 
priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of 
them where Christ should be born — and they said unto him, 
in Bethlehem, in the land of Judea; for thus it is written by 
the prophet — and thou Bethlehem, in the land of Jndea, art 
thou not the least among the Princes of Judea, for out of thee 
shall come a Governor that shall rule my people Israel?' 
This passage is in Micah, chap. v. ver. 2. 

I pass over the absurdity of seeing and following a star in 
the day-time, as a man would a Will with the ivisp, or a candle 
and lantern at night • and also that of seeing it in the east, 
when themselves came from the east; for could such a thing 
be seen at all to serve them for a guide, it must be in the 
west to them. I confine myself solely to the passage called a 
prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

The book of Micah, in the passage above quoted, chap. v. 
ver. 2, is speaking of some person without mentioning his 
name, from whom some great achievements were expected; 
but the description he gives of this person at the 5th verse 
proves evidently that it is not Jesus Christ, for he says at the 
5th ver. " and this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian 
shall come into our land, and when he shall tread in our pa- 
laces, then shall we raise up against him (that is, against the 
Assyrians) seven shepherds and eight principal men. — verse 6. 
And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and 
the land of Nimrod on the entrance thereof; thus shall He 
(the person spoken of at the head of the second verse) deliver 
us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land, and when 
he treadeth within our borders." 

This is so evidently descriptive of a military chief, that it 
cannot be applied to Christ without outraging the character 
they pretend to give us of him. Besides which, the circum- 
stances of the times here spoken of, and those of the times in 
which Christ is said to have lived, are in contradiction to each 
other. It was the Romans, and not the Assyrians, that had 
conquered and were in the land of Judea, and trod in their 



THE PROPHECIES. 141 

palaces when Christ was born, and when he died, and so far 
from his driving them out, it was they who signed the war- 
rant for his execution, and he suffered under it. 

Having thus shown that this is no prophecy of Jesus Christ, 
I pass on to the third passage quoted from the Old Testament 
by the New, as a prophecy of him. 

This, like the first I have spoken of, is introduced by a 
dream. Joseph dreameth another dream, and dreameth that 
he seeth another angel. The account begins at the 13th ver. 
of 2d chap, of Matthew. 

" The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, 
saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother and 
flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word : 
For Herod will seek the life of the young child to destroy him. 
When he arose he took the young child and his mother by 
night and departed into Egypt — and was there until the 
death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spo- 
ken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, " Out of Egypt have 
I called my son." 

This passage is in the book of Hosea, chap. xi. ver. 1. The 
words are, " When Israel was a child then I loved him and 
called my son out of Egypt — As they called them, so they 
went from them, they sacrificed unto Baalim and burnt in- 
cense to graven images/' 

This passage, falsely called a prophecy of Christ, refers to 
the children of Israel coming out of Egypt in the time of Pha- 
raoh, and to the idolatry they committed afterwards. To make 
it, apply to Jesus Christ, he must then be the person who 
sacrificed unto Baalim and burnt incense to graven images^ 
for the person called out of Egypt by the collective name, Is- 
rael, and the persons committing this idolatry, are the same 
persons, or the descendants of them. This then can be no 
prophecy of Jesus Christ, unless they are willing to make an 
idolater of him. I pass on to the fourth passage called a pro- 
phecy by the writer of the book of Matthew. 

This is introduced by a story, told by nobody but himself, 
and scarcely believed by anybody, of the slaughter of all the 
children under two years old, by the command of Herod. A 
thing which it is not probable should be done by Herod, as 
he only held an office under the Roman government, to which 
appeals could always be had, as we see in the case of Paul. 



142 EXAMINATION OF 

Matthew, however, having made or told his story, says, 
chap. ii. ver. 17 — u Then was fulfilled that which was spoken 
by Jeremy, the prophet, saying, — hi Ram ah was there a 
voice heard, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning ; 
Rachael iveeping for her children, and would not be com- 
forted because they were not." 

This passage is in Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. ver. 15, and this 
verse, when separated from the verses before and after it, and 
which explains its application, might with equal propriety be 
applied to every case of wars, sieges, and other violences, such 
as the Christians themselves have often done to the Jews, where 
mothers have lamented the loss of their children. There is 
nothing in the verse taken singly that designates or points out 
any particular application of it, otherwise than it points to 
some circumstances which, at the time of writing it, had 
already happened, and not to a thing yet to happen, for the 
verse is in the preter or past tense. I go to explain the case, 
and show the application of the verse. 

Jeremiah lived in the time that Nebuchadnezzar besieged, 
took, plundered, and destroyed Jerusalem, and led the Jews 
captive to Babylon. He carried his violence against the Jews 
to ever} 7 extreme. He slew the sons of king Zedekiah before 
his face, he then put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and kept him 
in prison till the day of his death. 

It is of this time of sorrow and suffering to the Jews that 
Jeremiah is speaking. Their temple was destroyed, their land 
desolated, their nation and government entirely broken up, 
and themselves, men, women, and children, carried into cap- 
tivity. They had too many sorrows of their own, immediately 
before their eyes, to permit them, or any of their chiefs, to be 
employing themselves on things that might, or might not, 
happen in the world seven hundred years afterwards. 

It is, as already observed, of this time of sorrow and suffer- 
ing to the Jews that Jeremiah is speaking in the verse in ques- 
tion. In the two next verses, the 16th and 17th, he endea- 
vours to console the sufferers by giving them hopes, and accord- 
ing to the fashion of speaking in those days, assurances from the 
Lord, that their sufferings should have an end, and that their 
children should return again to their oion land. But I leave 
the verses to speak for themselves, and the Old Testament to 
testify against the New. 






THE PROPHECIES. 143 

Jeremiah, chap. xxxi. ver. 15. — "Thus saith the Lord, a 
voice icas heard in Ramah (it is in the preter tense) lamenta- 
tion and bitter weeping : llachael weeping for her children, 
because they were not." 

Verse 16. — " Thus saith the Lord, refrain thy voice from 
weeping, and thine eyes from tears ; for thy^work shall be re- 
warded, saith the Lord, and THEY shall come again from the 
land of the enemy." 

Yerse 17. — '"And there is hope in thine end, saith the Lord, 
that thy children shall come again to their own border." 

By what strange ignorance or imposition is it, that the 
children of which Jeremiah speaks, (meaning the people of 
the Jewish nation, scripturally called children of Israel, and 
not mere infants under two years old,) and who were to return 
again from the land of the enemy, and come again into their 
own borders, can mean the children that Matthew makes 
Herod to slaughter ? Could those return again from the land 
of the enemy, or how can the land of the enemy be applied to 
them ? Could they come again to their own borders ? G-ood 
heaven ! How has the world been imposed upon by Testa- 
ment-makers, priestcraft, and pretended prophecies. I pass 
on to the fifth passage called a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

This, like two of the former, is introduced by dream. 
Joseph dreamed another dream, and dreameth of another An- 
gel. And Matthew is again the historian of the dream and 
the dreamer. If it were asked how Matthew could know what 
Joseph dreamed, neither the Bishop nor all the Church could 
answer the question. Perhaps it was Matthew that dreamed 
and not Joseph, that is, Joseph dreamed by proxy, in Matthew's 
brain, as they tell us Daniel dreamed for Nebuchadnezzar. 
But be this as it maj^, I go on with my subject. « 

The account of this dream is in Matthew, chap. ii. ver. 19. 
— " But when Herod was dead, behold an angel of the Lord 
appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt — Saying, arise and 
take the young child and its mother, and go into the land of 
Israel, for they are dead which sought the young child's life — 
and he arose and took the young child and his mother, and 
came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Arche- 
laus did reign in Judea in the room of his father Herod, he 
was afraid to go thither. Notwithstanding, being warned of 
God in a dream (here is another dream), he turned aside into 



144 EXAMINATION OF 

the parts of Galilee; and he came and dwelt in a city called 
Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled which icas spoken by the 
prophets — He shall he called a Nazarene." 

Here is good circumstantial evidence, that Matthew dream- 
ed, for there is no such passage in all the Old Testament : and 
I invite the bishop and all the priests in Christendom, includ- 
ing those of America, to produce it. I pass on to the sixth 
passage, called a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

This, as Swift says on another occasion, is lugged in head 
and shoulder ; it need only to be seen in order to be hooted 
as a forced and far-fetched piece of imposition. 

Matthew, chap. iv. v. 12. "Now when Jesus heard that 
John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee — and leav- 
ing Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon 
the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim — That 
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the 
prophet, saying, The land of Zabulon and the land of Neph- 
thalim, by the icay of the sea, beyond Jordan Galilee of 
the Gentiles — the people which sat in darkness saw great light, 
and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, 
light is springing upon them." 

I wonder Matthew has not made the cris-cross-row, or the 
christ-cross-row (I know not how the priests spell it) into a 
prophecy. He might as well have done this as cut out these 
unconnected and undescriptive sentences from the place they 
stand in and dubbed them with that title. 

The words, however, are in Isaiah ; chap. ix. ver. 1, 2, as fol- 
lows : — 

" Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her 
vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of 
Zebulun and the land of Nophtali, and aftencard did more 
grievously afflict her by the icay of the sea, beyond Jordan, in 
Galilee of the nations." 

All this relates to two circumstances that had already hap- 
pened, at the time these words in Isaiah were written. The 
one, where the land of Zebulon and Nephthali had been lightly 
afilicted, and afterwards more grievously by the way of the sea. 
But observe, reader, how Matthew has falsified the text. He 
begins his quotation at a part of the verse where there is not so 
much as a comma, and thereby cuts off everything that relates 
to the first affliction. He then leaves out all that relates to 



THE PROPHECIES. 145 

the second affliction, and by this means leaves out everything 
that makes the verse intelligible, and reduces it to a senseless 
skeleton of names of towns. 

To bring this imposition of Matthew clearly and immediately 
before the eye of the reader, I will repeat the verse, and put 
between crotchets the words he has left out, and put in Italics 
those he has preserved. 

[Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her 
vexation when at the first he lightly afflicted] the land of 
Zebulon and the land of Nephthali, [and did afterwards more 
grievously afflict her] by the tcay of the sea beyond Jordan in 
Galilee of the nations. 

What gross imposition is it to gut, as the phrase is, a verse 
in this manner, render it perfectly senseless, and then puff it 
off on a credulous world as a prophecy. I proceed to the next 
verse. 

Yer. 2. " The people that walked in darkness have seen a 
great light ; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, 
upon them hath the light shined." All this is historical, and 
not in the least prophetical. The whole is in the preter tense : 
it speaks of things that had been accomplished at the time the 
words were written, and not of things to be accomplished 
afterwards. 

As then the passage is in no possible sense prophetical, nor 
intended to be so, and that to attempt to make it so, is not 
only to falsify the original, but to commit a criminal imposition ', 
it is matter of no concern to us, otherwise than as curiosity, 
to know who the people were of which the passage speaks, 
that sat in darkness, and what the light was that had shined 
in upon them. 

If we look into the preceding chapter, the 8th, of which 
the 9th is only a continuation, we shall find the writer speak- 
ing, at the 19th verse, of " witches and wizards icho peep 
about and mutter" and of people who made application to 
them ; and he preaches and exhorts them against this darksome 
practice. It is of this people, and of this darksome practice, 
or walking in darkness, that he is speaking at the 2d verse of 
the 9th chapter; and with respect to the light that had shined 
in upon them, it refers entirely to his own ministry, and to 
the boldness of it, which opposed itself to that of the witches 
and icizards ioho peeped about and muttered. 

VOL. I. — 13 



146 EXAMINATION OF 

Isaiah is, upon the whole, a wild disorderly writer, preserving 
in general no clear chain of perception in the arrangement of 
his ideas, and consequently producing no defined conclusions 
from them. It is the wildncss of his style, the confusion of 
his ideas, and the ranting metaphors he employs, that have 
afforded so many opportunities to priestcraft in some cases, 
and to superstition in others, to impose those defects upon 
the world as prophecies of Jesus Christ. Finding no direct 
meaning in them, and not knowing what to make of them, 
and supposing at the same time they were intended to have a 
meaning, they supplied the defect by inventing a meaning of 
their own, and called it his. I have, however, in this place 
done Isaiah the justice to rescue him from the claws of Matthew, 
who has torn him unmercifully to pieces ; and from the impo- 
sition or ignorance of priests and commentators, by letting 
Isaiah speak for himself. 

If the words walking in darkness, and light breaking in, 
could in any case be applied prophetically, which they cannot 
be, they would better apply to the times we now live in than 
to any other. The world has " w&lked in darkness" for 
eighteen hundred years, both as to religion and government, 
and it is only since the American Revolution began that light 
has broken in. The belief of one God, whose attributes are 
revealed to us in the book of scripture of the creation, which 
no human hand can counterfeit or falsify, and not in the 
written or printed book which, as Matthew has shown, can be 
altered or falsified by ignorance or design, is now making its 
way among us ; and as to government, the light is already gone 
forth, and whilst men ought to be careful not to be blinded 
by the excess of it, as at a certain time in France, when every 
thing was Robespierrean violence, they ought to reverence, 
and even to adore it, with all the firmness and perseverance 
that true wisdom can inspire. 

I pass on to the seventh passage, called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew, chap. viii. ver. 16. " When the evening was 
come, they brought unto him (Jesus) many that were possessed 
with devils, and he cast out the spirit with his word, and heal- 
ed all that were sick. — That it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the prophet, saying, Himself took 
our infrmities, and bare our sicknesses." 



THE PROPHECIES. 147 

This affair of people being possessed by devils, and of cast- 
ing them out, was the fable of the day when the books of the 
New Testament were written. It had not existence at any 
other time. The books of the Old Testament mention no such 
thing; the people of the present day know of no such thing; 
nor does the history of any people or country speak of such a 
thing. It starts upon us all at once in the book of Matthew, 
and is altogether an invention of the New Testament-makers 
and the Christian church. The book of Matthew is the first 
book where the word Devil is mentioned.* We read in some 
of the books of the Old Testament of things called familiar 
spirits, the supposed companions of people called witches and 
wizards. It was no Other than the trick of pretended conju- 
rors to obtain money from credulous and ignorant people, or 
the fabricated charge of superstitious malignancy against un- 
fortunate and clecrepid old age. 

But the idea of a familiar spirit, if we can affix any idea to 
the term, is exceedingly different to that of being possessed 
by a devil. In the one case, the supposed familiar spirit is a 
dexterous agent, that comes and goes and does as he is bidden : 
in the other, he is a turbulent roaring monster, that tears and 
tortures the body into convulsions. Header, whoever thou art, 
put thy trust in thy Creator, make use of the reason he endow- 
ed thee with, and cast from thee all such fables. 

The passage alluded to by Matthew, for as a quotation it is 
false, is in Isaiah, chap, liii., v. 4, which is as follows : 

" Surely he (the person of whom Isaiah is speaking of) 
hath home our griefs and carried our sorrows." It is in the 
preter tense. 

Here is nothing about casting out devils, nor curing of 
sicknesses. The passage, therefore, so far from being a pro- 
phecy of Christ, is not even applicable as a circumstance. 

Isaiah, or at least the writer of the book that bears his 
name, employs the whole of this chapter, the 53d, in lamenting 
the sufferings of some deceased persons, of whom he speaks 
very pathetically. It is a monody on the death of a friend; 
but he mentions not the name of the person, nor gives any cir- 
cumstance of him by which he can be personally known : and 
it is this silence, which is evidence of nothing, that Matthew 

* The word devil is a personification of the word evil. 



148 EXAMINATION OF 

has laid hold of to put the name of Christ to it; as if the 
chiefs of the Jews, whose sorrows were then great, and the 
times they lived in big with danger, were never thinking about 
their own affairs, nor the fate of their own friends, but were 
continually running a wild goose chase into futurity. 

To make a monody into a prophecy is an absurdity. The 
characters and circumstances of men, even in different ages of 
the world, are so much alike, that what is said of one may 
with propriety be said of many ; but this fitness does not make 
the passage into a prophecy; and none but an impostor or a 
bigot would call it so. 

Isaiah, in deploring the hard fate and loss of his friend, 
mentions nothing of him but what the human lot of man is 
subject to. All the cases he states of him, his persecutions, 
his imprisonment, his patience in suffering, and his perseve- 
rance in principle, are all within the line of nature; they 
belong exclusively to none, and may with justness be said 
of many. But if Jesus Christ was the person the church 
represents him to be, that which would exclusively apply to 
him, must be something that could not apply to any other 
person ; something beyond the line of nature ; something 
beyond the lot of mortal man ; and there are no such expres- 
sions in this chapter, nor any other chapter in the Old Testa- 
ment. 

It is no exclusive description to say of a person, as is said 
of the person Isaiah is lamenting in this chapter, " He was 
oppressed, and he icas afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth : 
he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep be- 
fore his shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth." This 
may be said of thousands of persons, who have suffered op- 
pressions and unjust death with patience, silence, and perfect 
resignation. 

G-rotius, whom the bishop esteems a most learned man, and 
who certainly was so, supposed that the person of whom 
Isaiah is speaking, is Jeremiah. Grotius is led into this 
opinion, from the agreement there is between the description 
given by Isaiah, and the case of Jeremiah, as stated in the 
book that bears his name. If Jeremiah was an innocent man, 
and not a traitor in the interest of Nebuchadnezzar, when 
Jerusalem was besieged, his case was hard ; he was accused 



THE PROPHECIES. 149 

by his countrymen, was persecuted, oppressed, and imprisoned, 
and he says of himself (see Jeremiah, chapter ii. ver. 19), 
" But as for me, I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought 
to the slaughter." 

I should be inclined to the same opinion with Grotius, had 
Isaiah lived at the time when Jeremiah underwent the Gruel- 
ties of which he speaks ; but Isaiah died about fifty years be- 
fore : and it is of a person of his own time, whose case Isaiah 
is lamenting in the chapter in question, and which imposition 
and bigotry, more than seven hundred years afterwards, per- 
verted into a prophecy of a person they call Jesus Christ. 

I pass on to the eighth passage called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ, 

Matthew, chap, xii., ver. 14. "Then the pharisees went 
out and held a council against him, how they might destroy 
him — But when Jesus knew it he withdrew himself; and 
great numbers followed him, and he healed them all — and he 
charged them that they should not make him known : That it 
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias (Isaiah) the 
prophet, saying, 

" Behold my servant whom I have chosen : my beloved in 
whom my soul is well pleased ; I will put my spirit upon 
him, and he shall show judgment to the G-entiles — he shall 
not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the 
streets — -a bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax 
shall he not quench, till he sends forth judgment unto victory 
— and in his name shall the G-entiles trust." 

In the first place, this passage hath not the least relation to 
the purpose for which it is quoted. 

Matthew says, that the Pharisees held a council against 
Jesus to destroy him — that Jesus withdrew himself — that 
great numbers followed him — that he healed them — and that 
he charged them they should not make him known. 

But the passage Matthew has quoted as being fulfilled by 
these circumstances, does not so much as apply to any one of 
them. It has nothing to do with the Pharisees holding a 
council to destroy Jesus — with his withdrawing himself — with 
great numbers following him — with his healing them — nor 
with his charging them not to make him known. 

The purpose for which the passage is quoted, and the 
13* 



150 EXAMINATION OF 

passage itself, are as remote from each other, as nothing from 
something. But the case is, that people have been so long in the 
habit of reading the books called the Bible and Testament, with 
their eyes shut, and their senses locked up, that the most stupid 
inconsistencies have passed on them for truth, and imposition 
for prophecy. The all-wise Creator hath been dishonoured by 
being made the author of fable, and the human mind degraded 
by believing it. 

In this passage, as in that last mentioned, the name of the 
person of whom the passage speaks is not given, and we are 
left in the dark respecting him. It is this defect in the his- 
tory, that bigotry and imposition have laid hold of, to call it 
prophecy. 

Had Isaiah lived in the time of Cyrus, the passage would 
descriptively apply to him. As king of Persia, his authority 
was great among the Gentiles, and it is of such a character the 
passage speaks; and his friendship to the Jews whom he liber- 
ated from captivity, and who might then be compared to a 
bruised reed, was extensive. But this description does not 
apply to Jes'us Christ, who had no authority among the Gen- 
tiles ; and as to his own countrymen, figuratively described by 
the bruised reed, it was they who crucified him. Neither can 
it be said of him that he did not cry, and that his voice was 
not heard in the street. As a preacher it was his business to 
be heard, and we are told that he travelled about the country 
for that purpose. Matthew has given a long sermon, which 
(if his authority is good, but which is much to be doubted, 
since he imposes so much,) Jesus preached to a multitude 
upon a mountain, and it would be a quibble to say that a 
mountain is not a street, since it is a place equally as public. 

The last verse in the passage (the 4th), as it stands in Isai- 
ah, and which Matthew has not quoted, says, " He shall not 
fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth 
and the isles shall wait for his law." This also applies to 
Cyrus. He was not discouraged, he did not fail, he conquered 
all Babylon, liberated the Jews, and established laws. But 
this cannot be said of Jesus Christ, who, in the passage before 
us, according to Matthew, withdrew himself for fear of the 
Pharisees, and charged the people that followed him not to 
make it known where he was 3 and who, according to other 



THE PROPHECIES. 151 

parts of the Testament, was continually moving from place to 
place to avoid being apprehended.* 

But it is immaterial to us, at this distance of time, to know 
who the person was : it is sufficient to the purpose I am upon, 
that of detecting fraud and falsehood, to know who it was not, 
and to show it was not the person called Jesus Christ. 

* In the second part of the Age of Reason, I have shown that the 
book ascribed to Isaiah is not only miscellaneous as to matter, but as 
to authorship : that there are parts in it which could not be written 
by Isaiah, because they speak of things one hundred and fifty years 
after he was dead. The instance I have given of this, in that work, 
corresponds with the subject I am upon, at least a little better than 
Mat theirs introduction and his quotation. 

Isaiah lived, the latter part of his life, in the time of Hezekiah, and 
it was about one hundred and fifty years, from the death of Hezekiah 
to the first year of the reign of Cyrus, when Cyrus published a pro- 
clamation, which is given in the first chapter of the book of Ezra, for 
the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. It cannot be doubted, at least 
it ought not to be doubted, that the Jews would feel an affectionate 
gratitude for this act of benevolent justice, and it is natural they 
would express that gratitude in the customary style, bombastical and 
hyperbolical as it was, which they used on extraordinary occasions, 
and which was, and still is in practice with all the eastern nations. 

The instance to which I refer, and which is given in the second 
part of the Age of Reason, is the last verse of the 44th chapter, and 
the beginning of the 45th — in these words : " That saith of Cyrus, he 
is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure : even saying to Jeru- 
salem, thou shalt be built, and to the Temple, thy foundation shall be laid. 
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have 
holden to subdue nations before him ; and 1 will loose the loins of kings, 
to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut." 

This complimentary address is in the present tense, which shows 
that the things of which it speaks were in existence at the time of 
writing it; and consequently, that the author must have been at 
least one hundred and fifty years later than Isaiah, and that the book 
which bears his name is a compilation. The Proverbs called Solomon's, 
and the Psalms called David's, are of the same kind. The two last 
verses of the second book of Chronicles, and the three first verses of 
the first chapter of Ezra, are word for word the same ; which show 
that the compilers of the Bible mixed the writings of different authors 
together, and put them under some common head. 

As we have here an instance in the 44th and 45th chapters of the 
introduction of the name of Cyrus into a book to which it cannot 
belong, it affords good ground to conclude, that the passage in the 
42d chapter, in which the character of Cyrus is given without his 
name, has been introduced in like manner, and that the person there 
spoken of is Cyrus. 



152 EXAMINATION OF 

I pass on to the ninth passage called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ, 

Matthew, chap. xxi. v. 1. "And when they drew nigh 
unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethpage, unto the mount 
of Olives, then Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying unto 
them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye 
shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her, loose them and 
bring them unto me — and if any man say aught to you, ye 
shall say, the Lord hath need of them, and straightway he 
will send them. 

" All this was done that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, 
behold thy king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting on an ass, 
a?id a colt the foal of an ass." 

Poor ass ! let it be some consolation amidst all thy suffer- 
ings, that if the heathen world erected a bear into a constella- 
tion, the Christian world has elevated thee into a prophecy. 

This passage is in Zechariah, chap. ix. ver. 9, and is one 
of the whims of friend Zechariah to congratulate his country- 
men, wht) were then returning from captivity in Babylon, and 
himself with them, to Jerusalem. It has no concern with 
any other subject. It is strange that apostles, priests, and 
commentators, never permit, or never suppose, the Jews to be 
speaking of their own affairs. Everything in the Jewish books 
is perverted and distorted into meanings never intended by 
the writers. Even the poor ass must not be a Jew-ass but a 
Christian-ass. I wonder they did not make an apostle of him, 
or a bishop, or at least make him speak and prophesy. He 
could have lifted up his voice as loud as any of them. 

Zechariah, in the first chapter of his book, indulges himself 
in several whims on the joy of getting back to Jerusalem. 
He says at the 8th verse, "I saw by night (Zechariah was a 
sharp-sighted seer), and behold a man sitting on a red horse 
(yes, reader, a red horse), and he stood among the myrtle 
trees that were in the bottom, and behind him were red horses 
speckled and ichite." lie says notbiug about green horses, 
nor blue horses, perhaps because it is difficult to distinguish 
green from blue by night, but a Christian can have no doubt 
they were there, because "faith is the evidence of things not 
seen." 

Zechariah then introduces an angel among his horses ; but 



THE PROPHECIES- 153 

he does not tell us what colour the angel was of, whether black 
or white, nor whether he came to buy horses, or only to look 
at them as curiosities, for certainly they were of that kind. 
Be this however, as it may, he enters into conversation with 
this angel, on the joyful affair of getting back to Jerusalem, 
and he saith at the 16th verse, " Therefore, thus saith the 
Lord, I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies ; my house 
shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be 
stretched forth upon Jerusalem." An expression signifying 
the rebuilding the city. 

All this, whimsical and imaginary as it is, sufficiently proves 
that it was the entry of the Jews into Jerusalem from cap- 
tivity, and not the entry of Jesus Christ seven hundred years 
afterwards, that is the subject upon which Zechariah is always 
speaking. 

As to the expression of riding upon an ass, which com- 
mentators represent as a sign of humility in Jesus Christ, the 
case is, he never was so well mounted before. The asses of 
those countries are large and well-proportioned, and were 
anciently the chief of riding animals. Their beasts of burden, 
and which served also for the conveyance of the poor, were 
camels and dromedaries. We read in Judges, chap. x. ver. 
4, that " Jair (one of the Judges of Israel) had thirty sons 
that rode on thirty ass-colts, and they had thirty cities." But 
commentators distort everything. 

There is besides very reasonable grounds to conclude that 
this story of Jesus riding publicly into Jerusalem, accompanied, 
as it is said at the 3th and 9th verses, by a great multitude, 
shouting and rejoicing, and spreading their garments by the 
way, is altogether a story destitute of truth. 

In the last passage called a prophecy that I examined, Jesus 
is represented as withdrawing, that is, running away, and con- 
cealing himself for fear of being apprehended, and charging 
the people that were with him not to make him known. No 
new circumstance had arisen in the interim to change his con- 
dition for the better ; yet here he is represented as making his 
public entry into the same city from which he had fled for 
safety. The two cases contradict each other so much, that if 
both are not false, one of them at least can scarcely be true. 
For my own part, I do not believe there is one word of histo- 
rical truth in the whole book. I look upon it at best to be a 



154 EXAMINATION OF 

romance ) the principal personage of which is an imaginary or 
allegorical character founded upon some tale, and in which the 
moral is in many parts good, and the narrative part very 
badly and blunderingly written. 

I pass on to the tenth passage called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew, chap. xxvi. ver. 51. " And behold one of them 
which was with Jesus (meaning Peter) stretched out his hand, 
and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest, 
and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up 
again thy sword into its place, for all they that take the sword 
shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot 
now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more 
than twelve legions of angels ? But how then shall the 
scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be ? In that same 
hour Jesus said to the multitudes, Are ye come out as against 
a thief, with swords and with staves for to take me ? I sat 
daily with you teaching in the temple, and ye laid no hold on 
me. But all this was done that the scriptures of the prophets 
might be fulfilled." 

This loose and general manner of speaking, admits neither 
of detection nor of proof. Here is no quotation given, nor 
the name of any Bible author mentioned; to which reference 
can be had. 

There are, however, some high improbabilities against the 
truth of the account. 

First — It is not probable that the Jews, who were then a 
conquered people, and under subjection to the Romans, should 
be permitted to wear swords. 

Secondly — If Peter had attacked the servant of the high 
priest and cut off his ear, he would have been immediately 
taken up by the guard that took up his master, and sent to 
prison with him. 

Thirdly — What sort of disciples and preaching apostles 
must those of Christ have been that wore swords ? 

Fourthly — This scene is represented to have taken place 
the same evening of what is called the Lord's Supper, which 
makes, according to the ceremony of it, the inconsistency of 
wearing swords the greater. 

I pass on to the eleventh passage called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 



THE PROPHECIES. 155 

Matthew, chap, xxvii. ver. 3. " Then. Judas, which had 
betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented 
himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the 
chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned in that I have 
betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to 
us ? see thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver, 
and departed and went and hanged himself — And the chief 
priests took the silver pieces and said, It is not lawful to put 
them in the treasury, because it is the price of blood — And 
they took counsel and bought with them the potter's field to 
bury strangers in — Wherefore that field is called the field of 
blood unto this day. Then was fulfilled that which was 
spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, And they took the 
thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom 
they of the children of Israel did value, and gave them for the 
potter's field, as the Lord appointed me." 

This is a most bare-faced piece of imposition. The passage 
in Jeremiah, which speaks of the purchase of a field, has no 
more to do with the case to which Matthew applies it, than it 
has to do with the purchase of lands in America. I will 
recite the whole passage : — 

Jeremiah, chap, xxxii. v. 6. " And Jeremiah said, the 
word of the Lord came unto me, saying — Behold Hanamiel, 
the son of Shallum thine uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, 
Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemp- 
tion is thine to buy it — So Hanamiel mine uncle's son came 
to me in the court of the prison, according to the word of the 
Lord, and said unto me, Buy my field I pray thee, that is in 
Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin, for the right 
of inheritance is thine, and the. redemption is thine j buy it 
for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord — 
And I bought the field of Hanamiel mine uncle's son, that 
was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen 
shekels of silver — and I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, 
and took witnesses and weighed him the money in balances. 
So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was 
sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open 
— and I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch, the son 
of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanamiel 
mine uncle's son, and in the presence of the witnesses that 
subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that 



156 EXAMINATION OF 

sat in the court of the prison — and I charged Barach before 
them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 
Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both 
which is sealed, and this evidence which is open, and put them 
in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days — for 
thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Houses, and 
fields, and vineyards, shall be possessed again in this land." 

I forbear making any remark on this abominable imposition 
of Matthew. The thing glaringly speaks for itself. It is 
priests and commentators that I rather ought to censure, for 
having preached falsehood so long, and kept people in darkness 
with respect to those impositions. I am not contending with 
these men upon points of doctrine, for I know that sophistry 
has always a city of refuge. I am speaking of facts; for 
wherever the thing called a fact is a falsehood, the faith found- 
ed upon it is delusion, and the doctrine raised upon it not true. 
Ah, reader, put thy trust in thy Creator, and thou wilt be 
safe ! but if thou trustest to the book called the Scriptures, 
thou trustest to the rotten staff of fable and falsehood. But I 
return to my subject. 

There is among the whims and reveries of Zechariah, men- 
tion made of thirty pieces of silver given to a potter. They 
can hardly have been so stupid as to mistake a potter for a 
field : and if they had, xiie passage in Zechariah has no more 
to do with Jesus, Judas, and the field to bury strangers in, 
than that already quoted. I will recite the passage. 

Zechariah, chap. xi. ver. 7. " And I will feed the flock of 
slaughter, even you, poor of the flock ; and I took unto me 
two staves; the one I called Beauty and the other I called 
Bands, and I fed the flock — Three shepherds also, I cut off 
in one month ; and my soul loathed them, and their soul also 
abhorred me. — Then said I, I will not feed you; that which 
dieth, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut 
off; and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another. — And 
I took my staff, even Beauty, and cut it asunder, that I might 
break my covenant which I had made with all the people. — 
And it was broken in that day ; and so the poor of the flock 
who waited upon 'me, knew that it was the word of the Lord. 

" And I said unto them, If ye think good, give me my price, 
and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price thirty pieces 
of silver. And the Lord said unto me, Cast it unto the potter, 



THE PROPHECIES. 157 

a goodly price that I was prized at of them ; and I took the 
thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house 
of the Lord. 

" "When I cut asunder mine other staff, even Bands, that I 
might break the brotherhood between Jutfah and Israel."* 

There is no making either head or tail of this incoherent 
gibberish. His two staves, one called Beauty and the other 
Bands, is so much like a fairy tale, that I doubt if it had any 
other origin. — There is, however, no part that has the least 
relation to the case stated in Matthew; on the contrary it is 
the reverse of it. Here the thirty pieces of silver, whatever it 
was for, is called a goodly price, it was as much as the thing 



* Whiston, in his Essay on the Old Testament, says, that the pas- 
sage of Zechariah of which I have spoken, was in the copies of the 
Bible of the first century, in the book of Jeremiah, from whence, says 
he, it was taken and inserted without coherence, in that of Zechariah 
— well, let it be so, it does not make the case a whit the better for 
the New Testament ; "but it makes the case a great deal the worse 
for the Old. Because it shows, as I have mentioned respecting some 
passages in a book ascribed to Isaiah, that the works of different 
authors have been so mixed and confounded together, they cannot 
now be discriminated, except where they are historical, chronological, 
or biographical, as is the interpolation in Isaiah. It is the name of 
Cyrus inserted where it could not be inserted, as he was not in exist- 
ence till one hundred and fifty years after the time of Isaiah, that 
detects the interpolation and the blunder with it. 

Wbiston was a man of great literary learning, and, what is of much 
higher degree, of deep scientific learning. He was one of the best 
and most celebrated mathematicians of his time, for which he was 
made professor of mathematics of the university of Cambridge. He 
wrote so much in defence of the Old Testament, and of what he 
calls prophecies of Jesus Christ, that at last he began to suspect 
the truth of the scriptures, and wrote against them; for it is only 
those who examine them, that see the imposition. Those who believe 
them most, are those who know least about them. 

Whiston, after writing so much in defence of the scriptures, was at 
last prosecuted for writing against them. It was this that gave 
occasion to Swift, in his ludicrous epigram on Ditton and Whiston, 
each of which set up to find out the longitude, to call the one good 
Master Ditton*, and the other, wicked Will Whiston. But as Swift was 
a great associate with the Freethinkers of those days, such as Boling- 
broke, Pope, and others, who did not believe the book called the 
scriptures, there is no certainty whether he wittily called him wicked 
for defending the scriptures, or for writing against them. The known 
character of Swift decides for the former. 

u 



158 EXAMINATION OF 

was worth, and according to the language of the day, was 
approved of by the Lord, and the money given to the potter 
in the house of the Lord. In the case of Jesus and Judas, as 
stated in Matthew, the thirty pieces of silver were the price 
of blood; the transaction was condemned by the Lord, and the 
money, when refunded, was refused admittance into the 
treasury. Everything in the two cases is the reverse of each 
other. 

Besides this, a very different and direct contrary account to 
that of Matthew, is given of the affair of Judas, in the book 
called the Acts of the Apostles ; according to that book the case 
is, that so far from Judas repenting and returning the money, 
and the high priest buying a field with it to bury strangers in, 
Judas kept the money and bought a field with it for himself; 
and instead of hanging himself as Matthew says, he fell head- 
long and burst asunder — -some commentators endeavour to 
get over one part of the contradiction by ridiculously suppos- 
ing that Judas hanged himself first and the rope broke. 

Acts, chap. r. ver. 16. " Men and brethren, this scripture 
must needs have been fulfilled which the Holy G-host by the 
mouth of David spake before concerning Judas, which was a 
guide to them that took Jesus. (David says not a word about 
Judas) ver. 17, for he (Judas) was numbered among us and 
obtained part of our ministry." 

Ver. 18. " JVow this man purchased a field with the re- 
ward of iniquity, and falling headlong he burst asunder in 
the midst, and his bowels gushed out." Is it not a species of 
blasphemy to call the New Testament revealed religion, when 
we see in it such contradictions and absurdities ? 

I pass on to the twelfth passage called a prophecy of Jesus 
Christ. 

Matthew, chap, xxvii. ver. 35. " And they crucified him, 
and parted his garments, casting lots ; that it might be fulfilled 
which was spoken by the prophet, They parted my garments 
among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots." This 
expression is in the 22d Psalm, ver. 18. The writer of that 
Psalm (whoever he was, for the Psalms are a collection and 
not the work of one man) is speaking of himself and his own 
case, and not that of another. He begins this Psalm with the 
words w r hich the New Testament writers ascribe to Jesus 
Christ. " My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" — 



THE PROPHECIES. 159 

words which might be uttered by a complaining man without 
any great impropriety, but very improperly from the mouth 
of a reputed God. 

The picture which the writer draws of his own situation in 
this Psalm, is gloomy enough. He is not prophesying, but 
complaining of his own hard case. He represents himself as 
surrounded by enemies and beset by persecutions of every 
kind ) and by way of showing the inveteracy of his persecutors, 
he says at the 18th verse, " They parted my garments among 
them, and cast lots upon my vestured The expression is in 
the present tense ) and is the same as to say, they pursue me 
even to the clothes upon my back, and dispute how they shall 
divide them ; besides, the word vesture does not always mean 
clothing of any kind, but property, or rather the admitting a 
man to, or investing him with property; and as it is used in 
this Psalm distinct from the word garment, it appears to be 
used in this sense. But Jesus had no property y for they 
make him say of himself, u The foxes have holes, and the birds 
of the air have nests, bat the Son of man hath not where to 
lay his head." 

But be this as it may, if we permit ourselves to suppose 
the Almighty would condescend to tell, by what is called the 
spirit of prophecy, what could come to pass in some future 
age of the world, it is an injury to our own faculties, and to 
our ideas of his greatness, to imagine that it would be about 
an old coat, or an old pair of breeches, or about anything 
which the common accidents of life, or the quarrels that 
attend it, exhibit every day. 

That which is in the power of man to do, or in his will not 
to do, is not a subject for prophecy, even if there were such a 
thing, because it cannot carry with it auy evidence of divine 
power, or divine interposition : The ways of Grod are not the 
ways of men. That which an almighty power performs, or 
wills, is not within the circle of human power to do, or to 
control. But any executioner and his assistants might quarrel 
about dividing the garments of a sufferer, or divide them 
without quarrelling, and by that means fulfil the thing called°a 
prophecy, or set it aside. 

In the passage before examined, I have exposed the false- 
hood of them. In this I exhibit its degrading meanness, as 
an insult to the Creator and an injury to human reason. 



160 EXAMINATION OF 

Here end the passages called prophecies by Matthew. 

Matthew concludes his book by saying, that when Christ 
expired on the cross, the rocks rent, the graves opened, and 
the bodies of many of the saints arose ; and Mark says, there 
was darkness over the land from the sixth hour until the 
ninth. They produced no prophecy for this; but had these 
thiugs been facts, they would have been a proper subject for 
prophecy, because none but an almighty power could have 
inspired a foreknowledge of them, and afterwards fulfilled 
them. Since then, there is no such prophecy, but a pretended 
prophecy of an old coat, the proper deduction is, there were 
no such things, and that the book of Matthew is fable and 
falsehood. 

I pass on to the book called the Gospel according to St. 
Mark. 



THE BOOK OF MARK. 

There are but few passages in Mark called prophecies ; and 
but few in Luke and John. Such as there are I shall examine, 
and also such other passages as interfere with those cited by 
Matthew. 

Mark begins his book by a passage which he puts in the 
shape of a prophecy. Mark, chap. i. ver. 1. — " The begin- 
ning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God — As it is 
written in the prophets, Behold I send my messenger before 
thy face, which shall prepare the ivay before thee." Malachi, 
chap. iii. ver. 1. The passage in the original is in the first 
person. Mark makes this passage to be a prophecy of John 
the Baptist, said by the Church to be a forerunner of Jesus 
Christ. But if we attend to the verses that follow this ex- 
pression, as it stands in Malachi, and to the first and fifth 
verses of the next chapter, we shall sec that this application 
of it is erroneous and false. 

Malachi having said at the first verse, " Behold I will send 
my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me/' says 
at the second verse, " But who may abide the day of his com- 
ing ? and who shall stand when he appeareth ? for he is like 
a refiner's fire, and like fuller's soap." 



THE PROPHECIES. 161 

This description can have no reference to the birth of Jesus 
Christ, and consequently none to John the Baptist. It is a 
scene of fear and terror that is here described, and the 
birth of Christ is always spoken of as a time of joy and glad 
tidings. 

Malachi, continuing to speak on the same subject, explains 
in the next chapter what the scene is of which he speaks in 
the verses above quoted, and who the person is whom he calls 
the messenger. 

" Behold," says he, chap. iv. ver. 1, " the day cometh that 
shall burn like an oven, and all the proud, yea, and all that 
do wickedly, shall be stubble ; and the day cometh that shall 
burn them up, saith the Lord of hosts, that it shall leave them 
neither root nor branch." 

Ver. 5. " Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before 
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." 
* By what right, or by what imposition or ignorance Mark 
has made Elijah into John the Baptist, and Malachi's descrip- 
tion of the day of judgment into the birth day of Christ, I 
leave to the Bishop to settle. 

Mark, in the second and third verses of his first chapter, 
confounds two passages together, taken from different books 
of the Old Testament. The second verse, " Behold I send 
my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare the way 
before me," is taken, as I have said before, from Malachi. 
The third verse, which says, " The voice of one crying in the 
wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path 
straight," is not in Malachi, but in Isaiah, chap. xl. ver. 3. 
Whiston says, that both these verses were originally in Isaiah. 
If so, it is another instance of the disordered state of the Bible, 
and corroborates what I have said with respect to the name 
and description of Cyrus being in the book of Isaiah, to which 
it cannot chronologically belong. 

The words in Isaiah, chap. xl. ver. 3, " The voice of him 
that crycth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, 
make his path straight" are in the present tense, and conse- 
quently not predictive. It is one of those rhetorical figures 
which the Old Testament authors frequently used. That it 
is merely rhetorical and metaphorical, may be seen at the 6th 
verse. "And the voice said, cry; and he said, what shall I 
cry ? All flesh is grass." This is evidently nothing but a 
14* 



162 EXAMINATION OF 

figure; for flesh is not grass otherwise than as a figure or 
metaphor, where one thing is put for another. Besides which, 
the whole passage is too general and declamatory to be applied 
exclusively to any particular person or purpose. 

I pass on to the eleventh chapter. 

In this chapter, Mark speaks of Christ riding into Jerusalem 
upon a colt, but he does not make it the accomplishment of a 
prophecy, as Matthew has done; for he says nothing about a 
prophecy. Instead of which, he goes on the other tack, 
and in order to add new honours to the ass, he makes it to be 
a miracle; for he says, ver. 2, it was " a colt whereon never 
man sat;" signifying thereby, that as the ass had not been 
broken, he consequently was inspired into good manners, for 
we do not hear that he kicked Jesus Christ off. There is not 
a word about his kicking in all the four Evangelists. 

I pass on from these feats of horsemanship, performed upon 
a jack-ass, to the 15th chapter. 

At the 24th verse of this chapter, Mark speaks of parting 
Christ's garments and casting lots upon them, but he applies 
no prophecy to it as Matthew does. He rather speaks of it 
as a thing then in practice with executioners, as it is at this 
day. 

At the 28th verse of the same chapter, Mark speaks of 
Christ being crucified between two thieves; that, says he, " the 
scripture might be fulfilled which saith, and he ivas numbered 
with the transgressors." The same thing might be said of 
the thieves. 

This expression is in Isaiah, chap. liii. ver. 12 — Grotius 
applies it to Jeremiah. But the case has happened so often 
in the world, where innocent men have been numbered with 
transgressors, and is still continually happening, that it is 
absurdity to call it a prophecy of any particular person. All 
those whom the church call martyrs were numbered with 
transgressors. All the honest patriots who fell upon the scaf- 
fold in France, in the time of Robespierre, were numbered 
with transgressors ; and if himself had not fallen, the same 
case, according to a note in his own hand-writing, had befallen 
me; yjet I suppose the Bishop will not allow that Isaiah was 
prophesying of Thomas Paine. 

These are all the passages in Mark which have any reference 
to prophecies. 



THE PROPHECIES. 163 

Mark concludes his book by making Jesus say to his dis- 
ciples, chap. xvi. ver. 15, " Go ye into all the world and 
preach the gospel to every creature ; he that believeth and is 
baptized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be 
damned (fine Popish stuff this). And these signs shall follow 
them that believe; in my name they shall cast out devils; 
they shall speak with new tongues j they shall take up ser- 
pents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt 
them ; they shall lay hand's on the sick, and they shall re- 
cover." 

Now, the Bishop, in order to know if he has all this saving 
and wonder-working faith, should try those things upon him- 
self. He should take a good dose of arsenic, and if he please, 
I will send him a rattlesnake from America ! As for -myself, 
as I believe in God, and not at all in Jesus Christ, nor in 
the books called the scriptures, the experiment does not con- 
cern me. 

I pass on to the book of Luke. 

There are no passages in Luke called prophecies, excepting 
those which relate to the passages I have already examined. 

Luke speaks of Mary being espoused to Joseph, but he 
makes no references to the passage in Isaiah, as Matthew 
does. He speaks also of Jesus riding into Jerusalem upon a 
colt; but he says nothing about prophecy. He speaks of 
John the Baptist, and refers to the passage in Isaiah, of which 
I have already spoken. 

At the 13th chapter, verse 31, ne says, " The same day 
there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, (Jesus) 
Get thee out and depart hence, for Herod will kill thee — and 
he said unto them, Go ye and tell that fox, Behold I cast out 
devils and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and the third day 
I shall be perfected/' 

Matthew makes Herod to die whilst Christ was a child in 
Egypt, and makes Joseph to return with the child on the 
news of Herod's death, who had sought to kill him. Luke 
makes Herod to be living, and to seek the life of Jesus, 
after Jesus was thirty years of age ; for he says, chap. iii. v. 
23, " And Jesus began to be about thirty years of age, being, 
as was supposed, the son of Joseph/' 

The obscurity in which the historical part of the New Tes- 
tament is involved with respect to Herod, may afford to priests 



164 EXAMINATION OF 

and commentators a plea, which to some may appear plausible, 
but to none satisfactory, that the Herod of which Matthew 
speaks, and the Herod of which Luke speaks, were different 
persons. Matthew calls Herod a king; and Luke, chap. iii. v. 
1, calls Herod, "Tetrarch, (that is, Governor) of-G-alilee. But 
there could be no such person as a king Herod, because the 
Jews and their country were then under the dominion of the 
Koman Emperors, who governed them by Tetrarchs or Go- 
vernors. 

Luke, chap, ii., makes Jesus to be born when Cyrenius was 
Governor of Syria, to which government Judea was annexed ; 
and according to this, Jesus was not born in the time of Herod. 
Luke says nothing about Herod seeking the life of Jesus when 
he was born; nor of his destroying the children under two 
years old; nor of Joseph fleeing with Jesus into Egypt; nor 
of his returning from thence. On the contrary, the book of 
Luke speaks as if the person it calls Christ had never been 
out of Judea, and that Herod sought his life after he com- 
menced preaching, as is before stated. I have already shown 
that Luke, in the book called the Acts of the Apostles, (which 
commentators ascribe to Luke) contradicts the account in 
Matthew, with respect to Judas and the thirty pieces of silver. 
Matthew says, that Judas returned the money, and that the 
high priests bought with it a field to bury strangers in. Luke 
says, that Judas kept th3 money, and bought a field with it 
for himself. 

As it is impossible the wisdom of God should err, so it is 
impossible those books should have been written by divine in- 
spiration. Our belief in God, and his unerring wisdom, for- 
bids us to believe it. As for myself, I feel religiously happy 
in the total disbelief of it. 

There are no other passages called prophecies in Luke than 
those I have spoken of. I pass on to the book of John. 



THE BOOK OF JOHN. 

John, like Mark and Luke, is not much of a prophecy- 
monger. He speaks of the ass, and the casting lots for Jesus' 
clothes, and some other trifles, of which I have already spoken. 



THE PROPHECIES. 165 

John makes Jesus to say, chap. v. ver. 46, " For had ye 
believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of 
me." The book of the Acts, iu speaking of Jesus, says, 
chap. iii. ver. 22, " For Moses truly said unto the fathers, a 
prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your 
brethren, like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things what- 
soever he shalt say unto you." 

This passage is in Deuteronomy, chap, xviii. v. 15. They 
apply it as a prophecy of Jesus. What impositions ! The 
person spoken of in Deuteronomy, and also in Numbers, where 
the same person is spoken of, is Joshua, the minister of Moses, 
and his immediate successor, and just such another Robespier- 
rean character as Moses is represented to have been. The 
case, as related in those books, is as follows : — 

Moses was grown old and near to his end, and in order to pre- 
vent confusion after his death, — for the Israelites had no settled 
system of government, — it was thought best to nominate a 
successor to Moses while he was yet living. This was done, 
as we are told, in the following manner : 

Numbers, chap, xxvii. ver. 12. " And the Lord said unto 
Moses, Get thee up into this mount, Abarim, and see the land 
which I have given unto the children of Israel — and when 
thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people 
as Aaron thy brother is gathered. Ver. 15, And Moses 
spake unto the Lord, saying, Let the Lord, the God of the 
spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation — "Which 
may go out before them, and which may go in before them, 
and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in, 
that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep that have 
no shepherd — And the Lord said unto Moses, Take thee 
Joshua, the son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay 
thine hand upon him ; and set him before Eleazar, the priest, 
and before all the congregation, and give him a charge in their 
sight — and thou shalt put some of thine honour upon him, 
that all the congregation of the children of Israel may be 
obedient — ver. 22, and Moses did as the Lord commanded, 
and he took Joshua, and set him before Eleazar the priest, 
and before all the congregation; and he laid hands upon him, 
and gave him charge as the Lord commanded by the hand of 
Moses." 

I have nothing to do, in this place, with the truth, or the 



160 EXAMINATION OF 

conjuration here practised, of raisiDg up a successor to Moses 
like unto himself. The passage sufficiently proves it is Joshua, 
and that it is an imposition in John to make the case into a 
prophecy of Jesus. But the prophecy-mongers were so in- 
spired with falsehood, that they never speak truth.* 



* Newton, Bishop of Bristol in England, published a work in three 
volumes, entitled, " Dissertations on the Prophecies." The "work is 
tediously written and tiresome to read. He strains hard to make 
every passage into a prophecy that suits his purpose. — Among others, 
he makes this expression of Moses, "the Lord shall raise thee up a 
prophet like unto me," into a prophecy of Christ, who was not born, 
according to the Bible chronologies, till fifteen hundred and fifty-two 
years after the time of Moses, whereas it was an immediate successor 
to Moses, who was then near his end, that is spoken of in the passage 
above quoted. 

This Bishop, the better to impose this passage on the world as a 
prophecy of Christ, has entirely omitted the account in the book of 
Numbers which I have given at length, word for word, and which 
shows, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the person spoken of by 
Moses, is Joshua, and no other person. 

Newton is but a superficial writer. He takes up things upon hear- 
say, and inserts them without either examination or reflection, and 
the more extraordinary and incredible they are, the better he likes 
them. 

In speaking of the walls of Babylon, (volume the first, page 268,) 
he makes a quotation from a traveller of the name of Tavernur, whom 
he calls (by way of giving credit to what he says,) a celebrated tra- 
veller, that those walls were made of burnt brick, ten feet square and 
three feet thick. — If Newton had only thought of calculating the weight 
of such a brick, he would have seen the impossibility of their being 
used or even made. A brick ten feet square, and three feet thick, 
contains three hundred cubic feet, and allowing a cubic foot of brick 
to be only one hundred pounds, each of the Bishop's bricks would 
weigh thirty thousand pounds; and it would take about thirty cart 
loads of clay (one horse carts) to make one brick. 

But his account of the stones used in building Solomon's temple 
(volume 2d, page 211,) far exceeds his bricks of ten feet square in 
the walls of Bab}don ; these are but brick-bats compared to them. 

The stones (says he) employed in the foundation, were in magni- 
tude forty cubits, that is, above sixty feet, a cubit, says he, being 
somewhat more than a foot and a half, (a cubit is one foot nine inches) 
and the superstructure (says the Bishop) was worthy of such foun- 
dations. There were some stones, says he, of the whitest marble, 
forty-five cubits long, five cubits high, and six cubits broad. These 
are the dimensions this Bishop has given, which in measure of twelve 
inches to a foot, is 78 feet nine inches long, 10 feet C inches broad, 



THE PROPHECIES. 167 

I pass on to the last passage in these fables of the Evan- 
gelists called a prophecy of Jesus Christ. 

John, having spoken of Jesus expiring on the cross be- 
tween two thieves, says, chap. xix. ver. 32 : " Then came the 
soldiers, and brake the legs of the first (meaning one of the 
thieves) and of the other which was crucified with him. But 
when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, 
they brake not his legs — ver. 36, for these things were done 
that the Scripture should be fulfilled, " A bone of him shall 
not be broken" 

The passage here referred to is in Exodus, and has no more 
to do with Jesus than with the ass he rode upon to Jerusa- 
lem ; nor yet so much, if a roasted jack-ass, like a roasted 
he-goat, might be eaten at a Jewish passover. It might be 
some consolation to an ass to know, that though his bones 



and 8 feet three inches thick, and contains 7,234 cubic feet. I now 
go to demonstrate the imposition of this Bishop. 

A cubic foot of water weighs sixty-two pounds and a half— The 
specific gravity of marble to water is as 2 1-2 is to one. The weight 
therefore of a cubic foot of marble is 156 pounds, which multiplied 
by 7,234, the number of cubic feet in one of those stones, makes the 
weight of it to be 1,128,504 pounds, which is 503 tons. Allowing 
then a horse to draw about half a ton, it will require a thousand 
horses to draw one such stone on the ground ; how then were they 
to be lifted into the building by human bands ? 

The Bishop may talk of faith removing mountains, but all the 
faith of all the Bishops that ever lived could not remove one of those 
stones, and their bodily strength given in. 

This Bishop also tells of great guns used by the Turks at the taking 
of Constantinople, one of which, he says, was drawn by seventy yoke 
of oxen, and by two thousand men. Volume 3d, page 117. 

The weight of a cannon that carries a ball of 43 pounds, which is 
the largest cannon that are cast, weighs 8,000 pounds, about three 
tons and a half, and may be drawn by three yoke of oxen. Anybody 
may now calculate what the weight of the Bishop's great gun must 
be, that required seventy yoke of oxen to draw it. This Bishop beats 
Gulliver. 

When men give up the use of the divine gift of reason in writing 
on any subject, be it religious or anything else, there are no bounds 
to their extravagance, no limit to their absurdities. 

The three volumes which this Bishop has written on what he calls 
the prophecies, contain above 1,290 pages, and he says in vol. 3, 
page 117, l f I have studied brevity" This is as marvellous as the 
Bishop's great gun. m 



168 EXAMINATION OF 

might be picked, they would not be broken. I go to state the 
case. 

The book of Exodus, in instituting the Jewish passover, in 
which they were to eat a he-lamb or a he-goat, says, chap, 
xii. ver. 5, " Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of 
the first year ; ye shall take it from the sheep or from the 
goats." 

The book, after stating some ceremonies to be used in kill- 
ing and dressing it (for it was to be roasted, not boiled), says, 
ver. 43, " And the Lord said unto Moses and Aaron, this is the 
ordinance of the passover : there shall no stranger eat thereof; 
but every man's servant that is bought for money, when thou 
hast circumcised him, then shall he eat thereof. A foreigner 
shall not eat thereof. In one house shall it be eaten ; thou 
shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh thereof abroad out of 
the house ', neither shalt thou break a bone thereof." 

We here see that the case as it stands in Exodus is a cere- 
mony and not a prophecy, and totally unconnected with Jesus' 
bones, or any part of him. 

John having thus filled up the measure of apostolic fable, 
concludes his book with something that beats all fable j for he 
says at the last verse, a And there are also many other things 
which Jesus did, the which if they should be written every 
one, " I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the 
books that should be written." 

This is what in vulgar life is called a thumper ; that is, not 
only a lie, but a lie beyond the line of possibility ; besides 
which it is an absurdity, for if they should be written in the 
world, the world would contain them. — Here ends the ex- 
amination of the passages called prophecies. 



I HAVE now, reader, gone through and examined all the 
passages which the four books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, quote from the Old Testament, and call them prophecies 
of Jesus Christ. When I first sat down to this examination, 
I expected to find cause for some censure, but little did I 
expect to find them so utterly destitute of truth, and of all 
pretensions to it, as I have shown them to be. 

The practice which the writers of those books employ is not 



THE PROPHECIES. 169 

more false than it is absurd. They state some trifling case of 
the person they call Jesus Christ, and then cut out a sentence 
from some passage of the Old Testament, and call it a pro- 
phecy of that case. But when the words thus cut out are 
restored to the place they are taken from, and read with the 
words before and after them, they give the lie to the New 
Testament. A short instance or two of this will suffice for 
the whole. 

They make Joseph to dream of an angel, who informs him 
that Herod is dead, and tells him to come with the child out 
of Egypt. They then cut out a sentence from the book of 
Hosea, " Out of Egypt have I called my Son," and apply it 
as a prophecy in that case. 

The words " And called my Son out of Egypt," are in the 
Bible ; — but what of that ? They are only part of a passage, 
and not a whole passage, and stand immediately connected 
with other words, which show they refer to the children of 
Israel coming out of Egypt in the time of Pharaoh, and to the 
idolatry they committed afterwards. 

Again, they tell us that when the soldiers came to break 
the legs of the crucified persons, they found Jesus was already 
dead, and therefore did not break his. They then, with some 
alteration of the original, cut out a sentence from Exodus, " a 
bone of him shall not be broken," and apply it as a prophecy 
of that case. 

The words, " Neither shall he break a bone thereof" (for 
they have altered the text) are in the Bible — but what of 
that ? They are, as in the former case, only part of a passage, 
and not a whole passage, and when read with the words they 
are immediately joined to, show it is the bones of a he-lamb 
or a he-goat of which the passage speaks. 

These repeated forgeries and falsifications create a well- 
founded suspicion, that all the cases spoken of concerning the 
person called Jesus Christ are made cases, on purposing to lug 
in, and that very clumsily, some broken sentences from the 
Old Testament, and apply them as prophecies of those cases ; 
and that so far from his being the Son of Grod, he did not 
exist even as a man — that he is merely an imaginary or 
allegorical character, as Apollo, Hercules, Jupiter, and all the 
deities of antiquity were. There is no history written at the 
15 



170 EXAMINATION OF 

time Jesus Christ is said to have lived that speaks of the 
existence of such a person, even as a man. 

Did we find in any other book pretending to give a system 
of religion, the falsehoods, falsifications, contradictions, and 
absurdities, which are to be met with in almost every page of 
the Old and New Testament, all the priests of the present day, 
who supposed themselves capable, would triumphantly show 
their skill in criticism, and cry it down as a most glaring im- 
position. But since the books in question belong to their own 
trade and profession, they, or at least many of them, seek to 
stifle every inquiry into them, and abuse those who have the 
honesty and the courage to do it. 

When a book, as is the case with the Old and New Testa- 
ment, is ushered into the world under -the title of being the 
Word of God, it ought to be examined with the utmost 
strictness, in order to know if it has a well-founded claim to 
that title or not, and whether we are or are not imposed upon : 
for as no poison is so dangerous as that which poisons the 
physic, so no falsehood is so fatal as that which is made an 
article of faith. 

This examination becomes more necessary, because when 
the New Testament was written, I might say invented, the 
art of printing was not known, and there were no other copies 
of the Old Testament than written copies. A written copy 
of that book would cost about as much as six hundred com- 
mon printed bibles now cost. Consequently it was in the 
hands but of very few persons, and these chiefly of the church. 
This gave an opportunity to the writers of the New Testament 
to make quotations from the Old Testament as they pleased, 
and call them prophecies, with very little danger of being 
detected. Besides which, the terrors and inquisitorial fury of 
the church, like what they tell us of the flaming sword that 
turned every way, stood sentry over the New Testament ; and 
time, which brings everything else to light, has served to 
thicken the darkness that guards it from detection. 

Were the New Testament now to appear for the first time, 
every priest of the present day would examine it line by line, 
and compare the detached sentences it calls prophecies with 
th.e whole passages in the Old Testament from whence they 
are taken. Why then do they not make the same examination 
at this time, as they would make had the New Testament 



THE PROPHECIES. 171 

never appeared before ? If it be proper and right to make it 
in one case, it is equally proper and right to do it in the other 
case. Length of time can make no difference in the right to 
do it at any time. But, instead of doing this, they go on as 
their predecessors went on before them, to tell the people 
there are prophecies of Jesus Christ, when the truth is there 
are none. 

They tell us that Jesus rose from the dead, and ascended 
into heaven. It is very easy to say so; a great lie is as easily 
told as a little one. But if he had done so, those would have 
been the only circumstances respecting him that would have 
differed from the common lot of man ; and, consequently, the 
only case that would apply exclusively to him, as prophecy, 
would be some passage in the Old Testament that foretold 
such things of him. But there is not a passage in the Old 
Testament that speaks of a person, who, after being crucified, 
dead, and buried, should rise from the dead, and ascend into 
heaven. Our prophecy-mongers supply the silence the Old 
Testament guards upon such things, by telling us of passages 
they call prophecies, and that falsely so, about Joseph's dream, 
old clothes, broken bones, and such like trifling stuff. 

In writing upon this, as upon every other subject, I speak 
a language full and intelligible. I deal not in hints and inti- 
mations. I have several reasons for this : First, that I may 
be clearly understood. Secondly, that it may be seen I am 
in earnest. And thirdly, because it is an affront to truth to 
treat falsehood with complaisance. 

I will close this treatise with a subject I have already 
touched upon in the First Part of the Age of Reason. 

The world has been amused with the term revealed religion, 
and the generality of priests apply this term to the books 
called the Old and New Testament. The Mahometans apply 
the same term to the Koran. There is no man that believes 
in revealed religion stronger than I do ; but it is not the reve- 
ries of the Old and New Testament, nor of the Koran, that I 
dignify with that sacred title. That which is revelation to 
me, exists in something which no human mind can invent, no 
human hand can counterfeit or alter. 

The Word of God is the Creation we behold ; and this word 
of God revealeth to man all that is necessary for man to know 
of his Creator. 



172 EXAMINATION OF 

Do we want to contemplate his power ? We see it in the 
immensity of his creation. 

Do we want to contemplate his wisdom ? We see it in the 
unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible whole is 
governed. 

Do we want to contemplate his munificence ? We see it in 
the abundance with -which he fills the earth. 

Do we want to contemplate his mercy ? We see it in his 
not withholding that abundance, even from the unthankful. 

Do we want to contemplate his will, so far as it respects 
man ? The goodness he shows to all, is a lesson for our con- 
duct to each other. 

In fine — Do we want 7 to know what God is ? Search not 
the book called the Scripture, which any human hand might 
make, or any impostor invent; but the scripture called the 
Creation. 

When, in the first part of the Age of Reason, I called the 
Creation the true revelation of God to man, I did not know 
that any other person had expressed the same idea. But I 
lately met with the writings of Doctor Conyers Middleton, 
published the beginning of last century, in which he expresses 
himself in the same manner with respect to the creation, as I 
have done in the Age of Reason. 

He was principal librarian of the University of Cambridge, 
in England, which furnished him with extensive opportunities 
of reading, and necessarily required he should be well ac- 
quainted with the dead as well as the living languages. He 
was a man of a strong original mind ; had the courage to think 
for himself, and the honesty to speak his thoughts. 

He made a journey to Rome, from whence he wrote letters 
to show that the forms and ceremonies of the Romish Christian 
Church were taken from the degenerate state of the heathen 
mythology, as it stood in the latter times of the Greeks and 
Romans. He attacked without ceremony the miracles which 
the church pretend to perform ; and in one of his treatises, he 
calls the creation a revelation. The priests of England of that 
day, in order to defend their citadel by first defending its out- 
works, attacked him for attacking the Roman ceremonies ; and 
one of them censures him for calling the creation a revelation 
—he thus replies to him : 

"One of them/' says he, "appears to be scandalized by the 



THE PROPHECIES. 173 

title of revelation, which I have given to that discovery which 
God made of himself in the visible works of his creation. Yet 
it is no other than what the wise in all ages have given to it, 
who consider it as the most authentic and indisputable revela- 
tion which God has ever given of himself, from the beginning 
of the world to this day. It was this by which the first notice 
of him was revealed to the inhabitants of the earth, and by 
which alone it has been kept up ever since among the several 
nations of it. From this the reason of man was enabled to 
trace out his nature and attributes, and, by a gradual deduction 
of consequences, to learn his own nature also, with all the du- 
ties belonging to it which relate either to God or to his fellow- 
creatures. This constitution of things was ordained by God, 
as an universal law or rule of conduct to man — the source of all 
his knowledge — the test of all truth, by which all subsequent 
revelations, which are supposed to have been given by God in 
any other manner, must be tried, and cannot be received as 
divine any further than as they are found to tally and coincide 
with this original standard. 

" It was this divine law which I referred to in the passage 
above recited (meaning the passage on which they had attacked 
him), being desirous to excite the reader's attention to it, as it 
would enable him to judge more freely of the argument I was 
handling. For by contemplating this law, he would discover 
the genuine way which God himself has marked out to us for 
the acquisition of true knowledge j not from the authority or 
reports of our fellow-creatures, but from the information of 
the facts and material objects which in his providential distri- 
bution of worldly things, he hath presented to the perpetual 
observation of our senses. For as it was from these that his 
existence and nature, the most important articles of all know- 
ledge, were first discovered to man, so that grand discovery 
furnished new light towards tracing out the rest, and made all 
the inferior subjects of human knowledge more easily disco- 
verable to us by the same method. 

" I had another view likewise in the same passages, and 
applicable to the same end, of giving the reader a more en- 
larged notion of the question in dispute, who, by turning his 
thoughts to reflect on the works of the Creator, as they are 
manifested to us in this fabric of the world, could not fail to 
observe, that they are all of them great, noble, and suitable 
15* 



174 EXAMINATION OF 

to the majesty of bis nature, carrying with them the proofs 
of their origin, and showing themselves to be the production 
of an all-wise and Almighty being* and by accustoming his 
mind to these sublime reflections, he will be prepared to deter- 
mine, whether those miraculous interpositions so confidently 
affirmed to us by the primitive fathers, can reasonably be 
thought to make a part in the grand scheme of the divine 
administration, or whether it be agreeable that Grod, who 
created all things by his will, and can give what turn to them 
he pleases by the same will, should, for the particular pur- 
poses of his government and the services of the church, 
descend to the expedient of visions and revelations, granted 
sometimes to boys for the instruction of the elders, and some- 
times to women to settle the fashion and length of their veils, 
and sometimes to pastors of the church, to eojoin them to 
ordain one man a lecturer, another a priest; — or that he 
should scatter a profusion of miracles around the stake of a 
martyr, yet all of them vain and insignificant, and without 
any sensible effect, either of preserving the life, or easing the 
sufferings of the saint ; or even of mortifying his persecutors, 
who were always left to enjoy the full triumph of their cruelty, 
and the poor martyr to expire in a miserable death. When 
these things, I say, are brought to the original test, and com- 
pared with the genuine and indisputable works of the Creator, 
how minute, how trifling, how contemptible must they be ! — 
and how incredible must it be thought, that for the instruc- 
tion of his church, God should employ ministers so precarious, 
unsatisfactory, and inadequate, as the ecstasies of women and 
boys, and the visions of interested priests, which were de- 
rided at the very time by men of sense to whom they were 
proposed ! 

" That this universal law (continues Middlcton, meaning 
the law revealed in the works of the creation) was actually 
revealed to the heathen world long before the gospel was 
known, we learn from all the principal sages of antiquity, 
who made it the capital subject of their studies and writings. 

" Cicero has given us a short abstract of it in a fragment 
still remaining from one of his books on government, which I 
shall here transcribe in his own words, as they will illustrate 
my sense also, in the passages that appear so dark and dan- 
gerous to my antagonists." 



THE PROPHECIES. 175 

" The true law (says Cicero) is right reason conformable to 
the nature of things, constant, eternal, diffused through all, 
which calls us to duty by commanding — deters us from sin 
by forbidding ; which never loses its influence with the good, 
nor ever preserves it with the wicked. This law cannot be 
overruled by any other, nor abrogated in whole or in part; 
nor can we be absolved from it either by the senate or by the 
people ; nor are we to seek any other comment or interpreter 
of it but itself; nor can there be one law at Rome and another 
at Athens — one now and another hereafter; but the same 
eternal immutable law comprehends all nations at all times, 
under one common master and governor of all — God. He is 
the inventor, propounder, enacter, of this law ; and whoever 
will not obey it must first renounce himself and throw off the 
nature of man ; by doing which, he will suffer the greatest 
punishments, though he should escape all the other torments 
which are commonly believed to be prepared for the wicked/' 
Here ends the quotation from Cicero. 

" Our Doctors (continues Middleton) perhaps will look on 
this as rank deism ; but let them call it what they will, I 
shall ever avow and defend it as the fundamental, essential, 
and vital part of all true religion." Here ends the quotation 
from Middleton. 

I have here given the reader two sublime extracts from men 
who lived in ages of time far remote from each other, but who 
thought alike. Cicero lived before the time in which they tell 
us Christ was born. Middleton may be called a man of our 
own time, as he lived within the same century with ourselves. 

In Cicero we see that vast superiority of mind, that sublim- 
ity of right reasoning and justness of ideas which man acquires, 
not by studying Bibles and Testaments, and the theology of 
schools, built thereon, but by studying the Creator in the im- 
mensity and unchangeable order of his creation, and the 
immutability of his law. " There cannot" says Cicero, " he 
one law now, and another hereafter ; but the same eternal 
immutable law comprehends all nations, at all times, under 
one common master and governor of all — God." But accor- 
ding to the doctrine of schools which priests have set up, we 
see one law, called the Old Testament, given in one age of the 
world, and another law, called the New Testament, given in 
another age of the world. As all this is contradictory to the 



176 EXAMINATION OF 

eternal immutable nature, and the unerring and unchangeable 
wisdom of God, we must be compelled to hold this doctrine to 
be false, and the old and the new law, called the Old and the 
New Testament, to be impositions, fables, and forgeries. 

In Middleton, we see the manly eloquence of an enlarged 
mind, and the genuine sentiments of a true believer in his 
Creator. Instead of reposing his faith on books, by whatever 
name they may be called, whether Old Testament or New, he 
fixes the creation as the great original standard by which every 
other thing called the word, or work of God, is to be tried. 
In this we have an indisputable scale, whereby to measure 
every word or work imputed to him. If the thing so imputed 
carries not in itself the evidence of the same Almightiness of 
power, of the same unerring truth and wisdom, and the same 
unchangeable order in all its parts, as are visibly demonstrated 
to our senses-, and comprehensible by our reason, in the magni- 
ficent fabric of the universe, that word or that work is not of 
God. Let then the two books called the Old and New Testa- 
ment be tried by this rule, and the result will be, that the 
authors of them, whoever they were, will be convicted of 
forgery. 

The invariable principles, and unchangeable order, which 
regulate the movements of all the parts that compose the 
universe, demonstrate both to our senses and our reason that 
its creator is a God of unerring truth. But the Old Testament, 
besides the numberless, absurd, and bagatelle stories it tells of 
God, represents him as a God of deceit, a God not to be con- 
fided in. Ezekiel makes God to say, chap. 14, ver. 9, " And 
if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I, 
the Lord, have deceived that prophet" And at the 20th chap, 
ver. 25, be makes God in speaking of the children of Israel 
to say, " Wherefore I gave them statutes that were not good, 
and judgments by which they could not live." 

This, so far from being the word of God, is horrid blasphemy 
against him. Reader, put thy confidence in thy God, and put 
no trust in the Bible. 

The same Old Testament, after telling us that God created 
the heavens and the earth in six days, makes the same almighty 
power and eternal wisdom employ itself in giving directions 
how a priest's garments should be cut, and what sort of stuff 
they should be made of, and what their offerings should be, 



THE PROPHECIES. 177 

gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and 'purple, and scarlet, 
and fine linen, and goats' hair, and rams' skins dyed red, and 
badger skins, &c, chap. xxv. ver. 3 ; and in one of the pre- 
tended prophecies I have just examined, God is made to give 
directions how they should kill, cook, and eat a he-lamb or a 
he-goat. And Ezekiel, chap, iv., to fill up the measure of 
abominable absurdity, makes God to order him to take "wheat, 
and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, 
and make a loaf or a cake thereof and bake it with hu- 
man dung and eat it ;" but as Ezekiel complained that this 
mess was too strong for his stomach, the matter was compro- 
mised from man's dung to cow dung, Ezekiel, chap. iv. Com- 
pare all this ribaldry, blasphemously called the word of God, 
with the Almighty power that created the universe, and whose 
eternal wisdom directs and governs all its mighty movements, 
and we shall be at a loss to find a name sufficiently contempt- 
ible for it. 

In the promises which the Old Testament pretends that 
God made to his people, the same derogatory ideas of him 
prevail. It makes God to promise to Abraham, that his seed 
should be like the stars in heaven and the sand on the sea- 
shore for multitude, and that he would give them the land of 
Canaan as their inheritance for ever. But observe, reader, 
how the performance of this promise was to begin, and then 
ask thine own reason, if the wisdom of God, whose power is 
equal to his will, could, consistently with that power and that 
wisdom, make such a promise. 

The performance of the promise was to begin, according to 
that book, by four hundred years of bondage and affliction. 
Genesis, chap. xv. ver. 13, " And God said unto Abraham, 
know of a surety, that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land 
that is not theirs, and shall serve them, and they shall afflict 
them four hundred years." This promise then to Abraham, 
and his seed for ever, to inherit the land of Canaan, had it 
been a fact instead of a fable, was to operate, in the commence- 
ment of it, as a curse upon all the people and their children, 
and their children's children, for four hundred years. 

But the case is, the book of Genesis was written after the 
bondage in Egypt had taken place ; and in order to get rid of 
the disgrace of the Lord's chosen people, as they called them- 
selves, being in bondage to the Gentiles, they make God to be 

VOL. I. — 12 



178 EXAMINATION OF 

the author of it, and annex it as a condition to a pretended 
promise ; as if God, in making that promise, had exceeded his 
power in performing it, and consequently his wisdom in making 
it, and was obliged to compromise with them for one half, and 
with the Egyptians, to whom they were to be in bondage, for 
the other half. 

Without degrading my own reason by bringing those wretch- 
ed and contemptible tales into a comparative view, with the 
Almighty power and eternal wisdom, which the Creator hath 
demonstrated to our senses in the creation of the universe, I 
will confine myself to say, that if we compare them with the 
divine and forcible sentiments of Cicero, the result will be, 
that the human mind has degenerated by believing them. 
Man in a state of grovelling superstition, from which he has 
not courage to rise, loses the energy of his mental powers. 

I will not tire the reader with more observations on the Old 
Testament. 

As to the New Testament, if it be brought and tried by that 
standard, which, as Middleton wisely says, God has revealed 
to our senses, of his Almighty power and wisdom in the crea- 
tion and government of the visible universe, it will be found 
equally as false, paltry, and absurd, as the Old. 

Without entering, in this place, into any other argument, 
that the story of Christ is of human invention, and not of 
divine origin, I will confine myself to show that it is deroga- 
tory to God, by the contrivance of it ; because the means it 
supposes God to use, are not adequate to the end to be obtain- 
ed ; and therefore are derogatory to the Almightiness of his 
power, and the eternity of his wisdom. 

The New Testament supposes that God sent his Son upon 
earth to make a new covenant with man, which the church 
calls the covenant of Grace, and to instruct mankind in a new 
doctrine, which it calls Faith, meaning thereby, not faith in 
God, for Cicero and all true Deists always had and always will 
have this ; but faith in the person called Jesus Christ, and that 
whoever had not this faith should, to use the words of the 
New Testament, be DAMNED. 

Now, if this were a fact, it is consistent with that attribute 
of God, called his Goodness, that no time should be lost in 
letting poor unfortunate man know it; and as that goodness 
was united to Almighty power ; and that power to Almighty 



THE PROPHECIES. - 179 

wisdom, all the means existed in the hand of the Creator to 
make it known immediately over the whole earth, in a man- 
ner suitable to the Almightiness of his divine nature, and with 
evidence that would not leave man in doubt; for it is always 
incumbent upon us, in all cases, to believe that the Almighty 
always acts, not by imperfect means as imperfect man acts, 
but consistently with his Almightiness. It is this only that 
can become the infallible criterion by which we can possibly 
distinguish the works of God from the works of man. 

Observe now, reader, how the comparison between the sup- 
posed mission of Christ, on the belief or disbelief of which 
they say man was to be saved or damned — observe, I say, how 
the comparison between this and the Almighty power and 
wisdom of God demonstrated to our senses in the visible crea- 
tion, goes on. 

The Old Testament tells us that God created the heavens 
and the earth, and everything therein, in six days. The term 
six days is ridiculous enough when applied to God ; but leav- 
ing out that absurdity, it contains the idea of Almighty power 
acting unitedly with Almighty wisdom, to produce an immense 
work, that of the creation of the universe and everything there- 
in, in a short time. 

Now as the eternal salvation of man is of much greater 
importance than his creation, and as that salvation depends, 
as the New Testament tells us, on man's knowledge of, and 
belief in, the person called Jesus Christ, it necessarily follows 
from our belief in the goodness and justice of God, and our 
knowledge of his almighty power and wisdom, as demon- 
strated in the creation, that all this, if true, would be made 
known to all parts of the world, in as little time, at least, as 
was employed in making the world. To suppose the Almighty 
would pay greater regard and attention to the creation and or- 
ganization of inanimate matter, than he would to the salvation 
of innumerable millions of souls, which himself had created, 
" as tJie image of himself " is to offer an insult to his goodness 
and his justice. ' 

Now observe, reader, how the promulgation of this pretended 
salvation by a knowledge of, and a belief in Jesus Christ went 
on, compared with the work of creation. 

In the first place, it took longer time to make a child than 
to make the world, for nine months were passed away and 



180 EXAMINATION OF 

totally lost in a state of pregnancy ; which is more than forty 
times longer time than God employed in making the world, 
according to the Bible account. Secondly j several years of 
Christ's life were lost in a state of human infancy. But the 
universe was in maturity the moment it existed. Thirdly* 
Christ, as Luke asserts, was thirty years old before he began 
to preach what they call his mission. Millions of souls died 
in the meantime without knowing it. Fourthly ) it was above 
three hundred years from that time before the book called the 
New Testament was compiled into a written copy, before which 
time there was no such book. Fifthly; it was above a thou- 
sand years after that, before it could be circulated ; because 
neither Jesus nor his apostles had knowledge of, or were in- 
spired with the art of printing : and consequently as the 
means for making it universally known did not exist, the 
means were not equal to the end, and therefore it is not the 
work of God. 

I will here subjoin the nineteenth Psalm, which is truly 
deistical, to show how universally and instantaneously the 
works of God make themselves known, compared with this 
pretended salvation by Jesus Christ. 

Psalm 19th. " The heavens declare the glory of God, 
and the firmament showeth his handy work — Day unto day 
uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge — 
There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard 
— Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words 
to the end of the world. In them hath he set a chamber for 
the Sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his cham- 
ber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race — his going 
forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the 
ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof." 

Now, had the news of salvation by Jesus Christ been in- 
scribed on the face of the Sun and the Moon, in characters 
that all nations would have understood, the whole earth had 
known it in twenty-four hours, and all nations would have 
believed it ; whereas though it is now almost two thousand 
years since, as they tell us, Christ came upon earth, not a 
twentieth part of the people of the earth know anything of it, 
and among those who do, the wiser part do not believe it. 

I have now, reader, gone through all the passages called 
prophecies of Jesus Christ, and shown there is no such thing. 



THE PROPHECIES. 181 

I have examined the story told of Jesus Christy and com- 
pared the several circumstances of it with that revelation, 
which, as Middleton wisely says, God has made to us of his 
Power and Wisdom in the structure of the universe, and by 
which everything ascribed to him is to be tried. The result 
is, that the story of Christ has not one trait, either in its 
character or in the means employed, that bears the least 
resemblance to the power and wisdom of Grod, as demonstrated 
in the creation of the universe. All the means are human 
means, slow, uncertain, and inadequate to the accomplishment 
of the end proposed, and therefore the whole is a fabulous in- 
vention, and undeserving of credit. 

The priests of the present day profess to believe it. They 
gain their living by it, and they exclaim against something 
they call infidelity. I will define what it is. He that be- 
lieves IN THE STORY OP CHRIST IS AN INPIDEL TO GOD. 

Thomas Paine. 



16 



APPENDIX. 



CONTRADICTORY DOCTRINES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT 

BETWEEN 

MATTHEW AND MARK. 



In the New Testament, Mark, chap, xvi., ver. 16, it is said, 
"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he that 
believeth not shall be damned." This is making salvation, or 
in other words, the happiness of man after this life, to depend 
entirely on believing, or on what Christians call faith. 

But the 25th chapter of The Gospel according to Matthew 
makes Jesus Christ to preach a direct contrary doctrine to 
The Gospel according to Mark; for it makes salvation, or 
the future happiness of man. to depend entirely on good 
works ; and those good works are not works done to God, for 
he needs them not, but good works done to man. 

The passage referred to in Matthew is the account there 
given of what is called the last day, or the day of judgment, 
where the whole world is represented to be divided into two 
parts, the righteous and the unrighteous, metaphorically called 
the sJieep and the goats. 

To the one part, called the righteous, or the sheep, it says, 
"Come, ye blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared 
for you from the beginning of the world — for I was an hungered 
and ye gave me meat — I was thirsty and ye gave me drink — 
I was a stranger and ye took me in — Naked and ye clothed 
me — I was sick and ye visited me — I was in prison and ye 
came unto me. 

" Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when 
saw we thee an hungered and fed thee ; or thirsty and gave 

(182) 



APPENDIX. 183 

thee drink ? "When saw we thee a stranger and took thee in, 
or naked and clothed thee ? Or when saw we thee sick and 
in prison, and came unto thee ? 

" And the king shall answer and say unto them, Verily I 
say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the 
least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." 

Here is nothing about believing in Christ — nothing about 
that phantom of the imagination called Faith. The works 
here spoken of, are works of humanity and benevolence, or 
in other words, an endeavour to make God's creation happy 
Here is nothing about preaching and making long prayers, as 
if God must be dictated to by man • nor about building 
churches and meetings, nor hiring priests to pray and preach 
in them. Here is nothing about predestination, that lust 
which some men have for damning one another. Here is 
nothing about baptism, whether by sprinkling or plunging, 
nor about any of those ceremonies for which the Christian 
church has been fighting, persecuting, and burning each other, 
ever since the Christian church began. 

If it be asked, why do not priests preach the doctrine con- 
tained in this chapter ? The answer is easy ; — they are not 
fond of practising it themselves. It does not answer for their 
trade. They had rather get than give. Charity with them 
begins and ends at home. 

Had it been said, Come, ye blessed, ye have been liberal in 
paying the preachers of the word, ye have contributed 
largely towards building churches and meeting-houses, there 
is not a hired priest in Christendom but would have thundered 
it continually in the ears of his congregation. But as it is 
altogether on good works done to men, the priests pass over 
it in silence, and they will abuse me for bringing it into 
notice. 

Thomas Paine. 



MT 

PEIVATE THOUGHTS 

ON A 

FUTURE STATE. 



I have said in the first part of the Age of Reason, that 
" 1 hope for happiness after this life." This hope is comfort- 
able to me, and I presume not to go beyond the comfortable 
idea of hope, with respect to a future state. 

I consider myself in the hands of my Creator, and that he 
will dispose of me after this life, consistently with his justice 
and goodness. I leave all these matters to him as my Creator 
and friend, and I hold it to be presumption in man to make 
an article of faith as to what the Creator will do with us here- 
after. 

I do not believe because a man and a woman make a child, 
that it imposes on the Creator the unavoidable obligation of 
keeping the being so made in eternal existence hereafter. It 
is in his power to do so, or not to do so, and it is not in our 
power to decide which he will do. 

The book called the New Testament, which I hold to be 
fabulous, and have shown to be false, gives an account in the 
25th chapter of Matthew, of what is there called the last day, 
or the day of judgment. The whole world, according to that 
account, is divided into two parts, the righteous and the un- 
righteous, figuratively called the sheep and the goats. They 
are then to receive their sentence. To the one, figuratively 
called the sheep, it says, " Come, ye blessed of my Father, 
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world." To the other, figuratively called the goats, it 
says, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, pre- 
pared for the devil and his angels." 

(184) 



APPENDIX. 185 

Now the case is, the world cannot be thus divided — the 
moral world, like the physical world, is composed of numerous 
degrees of character, running imperceptibly one into the other, 
in such a manner that no fixed point of division can be found 
in either. That point is nowhere, or is everywhere. The 
whole world might be divided into two parts numerically, but 
not as to moral character; and therefore the metaphor of 
dividing them, as sheep and goats can be divided, whose 
difference is marked by their external figure, is absurd. All 
sheep are still sheep; all goats are still goats; it is their 
physical nature to be so. But one part of the world are not 
all good alike, nor the other part all wicked alike. There are 
some exceedingly good ; others exceedingly wicked. There 
is another description of men who cannot be ranked with either 
the one or the other — they belong neither to the sheep nor 
the goats. 

My own opinion is, that those whose lives have been spent 
in doing good, and endeavouring to make their fellow mortals 
happy, for this is the only way in which we can serve God, 
will be happy hereafter ; and that the very wicked will meet 
with some punishment. This is my opinion. It is consistent 
with my idea of God's justice, and with the reason that God has 
given me. 

Thomas Paine. 



16 



EXTRACT FROM A REPLY 

TO THE 

BISHOP OF LLANDAPF. 



[This extract from Mr. Paine's reply to Watson, Bishop of Llandaff. 
was given by him, not long before his death, to Mrs. Palmer, widow 
of Elilm Palmer. He retained the work entire, and therefore must 
have transcribed this part, which was unusual for him to do. Pro- 
bably he had discovered errors, which he corrected in the copy. Mrs. 
Palmer presented it to the editor of a periodical work entitled the 
Theophilanthropist, published in New York, in which it appeared in 
1810.] 



GENESIS. 

The Bishop says, " the oldest book in the world is Genesis." 
This is mere assertion ; he offers no proof of it, and I go to 
controvert it, and to show that the book of Job, which is not 
a Hebrew book, but is a book of the Gentiles, translated into 
Hebrew, is much older than the book of Genesis. 

The book of Genesis means the book of Generations; to 
which are prefixed two chapters, the first and second, which 
contain two different cosmogonies, that is, two different ac- 
counts of the creation of the world, written by different per- 
sons, as I have shown in the preceding part of this work.* 

The first cosmogony begins at the first verse of the first 
chapter, and ends at the end of the third verse of the second 
chapter; for the adverbial conjunction thus, with which the 
second chapter begins, shows those three verses to belong to 
the first chapter. The second cosmogony begins at the fourth 
verse of the second chapter, and ends with that chapter. 

* See Letter to Erskine, page 73. 

(187) 



188 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

In the first cosmogony the name of God is used without 
any epithet joined to it, and is repeated thirty-five times. In 
the second cosmogony it is always the Lord God, which is 
repeated eleven times. These two different styles of expres- 
sion show these two chapters to be the work of two different 
persons, and the contradictions they contain, show they can- 
not be the work of one and the same person, as I have already 
shown. 

The third chapter, in which the style of Lord God is con- 
tinued in every instance, except in the supposed conversation 
between the woman and the serpent (for in every place in that 
chapter where the writer speaks, it is always the Lord God), 
shows this chapter to belong to the second cosmogony. 

This chapter gives an account of what is called the fall of 
man, which is no other than a fable borrowed from, and con- 
structed upon the religion of Zoroaster, or the Persians, or 
the annual progress of the sun through the twelve signs of the 
Zodiac. It is the fall of the year, the approach and evil of 
winter, announced by the ascension of the autumnal constella- 
tion of the serpent of the Zodiac, and not the moral fall of 
man, that is the key of the allegory, and of the fable in Genesis 
borrowed from it. 

The fall of man in Genesis, is said to have been produced 
by eating a certain fruit, generally taken to be an apple. The 
fall of the year is the season for gathering and eating the new 
apples of that year. The allegory, therefore, holds with re- 
spect to the fruit, which it would not have done had it been 
an early summer fruit. It holds also with respect to place. 
The tree is said to have been placed in the midst of the gar- 
den. But why in the midst of the garden more than any 
other place ? The solution of the allegory gives the answer 
to this question, which is, that the fall of the year, when 
apples and other autumnal fruits are ripe, and when days and 
nights are of equal length, is the mid-season between summer 
and winter. 

It holds also with respect to clothing, and the temperature 
of the air. It is said in Genesis, chap. iii. ver. 21, " Unto 
Adam and his wife did the Lord God make coats of slcins 
and clothed them." But why are coats of skins mentioned ? 
This cannot be understood as referring to anything of the 
nature of moral evil. The solution of the allegory gives again 



OF LLANDAFF. 189 

the answer to this question, which is, that the evil of winter, 
which follows the fall of the year, fabulously called in Genesis 
the fall of man, makes warm clothing necessary. 

But of these things I shall speak fully when I come in an- 
other part to treat of the ancient religion of the Persians, and 
compare it with the modern religion of the New Testament.* 
At present, I shall confine myself to the comparative antiquity 
of the books of Genesis and Job, taking, at the same time, 
whatever I may find in my way with respect to the fabulous- 
ness of the book of Genesis ; for if what is called the fall of 
man in Genesis be fabulous or allegorical, that which is called 
the redemption in the New Testament cannot be a fact. It 
is morally impossible, and impossible also in the nature of 
things, that moral good can redeem physical evil. I return 
to the Bishop. 

If Genesis be, as the Bishop asserts, the oldest book in the 
world, and, consequently, the oldest and first written book of 
the Bible, and if the extraordinary things related in it, such 
as the creation of the world in six days, the tree of life, and 
of good and evil, the story of Eve and the talking serpent, 
the fall of man and his being turned out of Paradise, were 
facts, or even believed by the Jews to be facts, they would be 
referred to as fundamental matters, and that very frequently 
in the books of the Bible that were written by various authors 
afterwards ; whereas there is not a book, chapter, or verse of 
the Bible, from the time Moses is said to have written the 
book of Genesis, to the book of Malachi, the last book in the 
Bible, including a space of more than a thousand years, in 
which there is any mention made of these things, or any of 
them, nor are they so much as alluded to. How will the 
Bishop solve this difficulty, which stands as a circumstantial 
contradiction to his assertion ? 

There are but two ways of solving it : 

First, that the book of Genesis is not an ancient book ; that 
it has been written by some (now) unknown person after the 
return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity, about a 
thousand years after the time that Moses is said to have lived, 
and put as a preface or introduction to the other books, when 
they were formed into a canon in the time of the second 

*Not published. 



190 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

temple, and therefore, not having existed before that time, 
none of these things mentioned in it could be referred to in 
those books. 

Secondly, that admitting Genesis to have been written by- 
Moses, the Jews did not believe the things stated in it to be 
true, and, therefore, as they could not refer to them as facts, 
they would not refer to them as fables. The first of these 
solutions goes against the antiquity of the book, and the 
second against its authenticity, and the Bishop may take 
which he pleases. 

But be the author of Genesis whoever he may, there is 
abundant evidence to show, as well from the early Christian 
writers, as from the Jews themselves, that the things stated in 
that book were not believed to be facts. Why they have been 
believed as facts since that time, when better and fuller know- 
ledge existed on the case, than is known now, can be accounted 
for only on the imposition of priestcraft. 

Augustine, one of the early champions of the Christian 
church, acknowledges in his City of God, that the adventure 
of Eve and the serpent, and the account of Paradise, were 
generally considered as fiction or allegory. He regards them 
as allegory himself, without attempting to give any explana- 
tion • but he supposes that a better explanation might be 
found than those that had been offered. 

Origen, another early champion of the church, says, "What 
man of good sense can ever persuade himself that there were 
a first, a second, and a third day, and that each of these days 
had a night, when there were yet neither sun, moon, nor stars ? 
What man can be stupid enough to believe that God, acting 
the part of a gardener, had planted a garden in the east, that 
the tree of life was a real tree, and that its fruit had the virtue 
of making those who eat of it live for ever?" 

Maimonides, one of the most learned and celebrated of the 
Jewish Babbins, who lived in the eleventh century (about 
seven or eight hundred years ago), and to whom the Bishop 
refers in his answer to me, is very explicit, in his book en- 
titled More JVebachim, upon the non-reality of the things 
stated in the account of the Creation in the book of Genesis. 

" We ought not (says he) to understand, nor take according 
to the letter, that which is written in the book of the Crea- 
tion, nor to have the same ideas of it with common men; 



OF LLANDAFF. 191 

otherwise, our ancient sages would not have recommended, 
with so much care, to conceal the sense of it, and not to raise 
the allegorical veil which envelopes the truth it contains. The 
book of Genesis, taken according to the letter, gives the most 
absurd and the most extravagant ideas of the Divinity. 
Whoever shall find out the sense of it, ought to restrain him- 
self from divulging it. It is a maxim which all our sages 
repeat, and above all with respect to the work of six days. 
It may happen that some one, with the aid he may borrow 
from others, may hit upon the meaning of it. In that case, 
he ought to impose silence upon himself; or if he speak of it, 
he ought to speak obscurely, and in an enigmatical manner, as 
I do myself, leaving the rest to be found out by those who can 
understand." 

This is, certainly, a very extraordinary declaration of Mai- 
monides, taking all the parts of it. 

First, he declares, that the account of the Creation in the 
book of Genesis is not a fact ; that to believe it to be a fact, 
gives the most absurd and the most extravagant ideas of the 
Divinity. 

Secondly, that it is an allegory. 

Thirdly, that the allegory has a concealed secret. 

Fourthly, that whoever can find the secret ought not to 
tell it. 

It is this last part that is the most extraordinary. Why all 
this care of the Jewish Rabbins, to prevent what they call the 
concealed meaning, or the secret, from being known, and if 
known, to prevent any of their people from telling it? It 
certainly must be something which the Jewish nation are 
afraid or ashamed the word should know. It must be some- 
thing personal to them as a people, and not a secret of a 
divine nature, which the more it is known, the more it in- 
creases the glory of the Creator, and the gratitude and happi- 
ness of man. It is not God's secret, but their own, they are 
keeping. I go to unveil the secret. 

The case is, the Jews have stolen their cosmogony, that is, 
their account of the Creation, from the cosmogony of the Per- 
sians, contained in the book of Zoroaster, the Persian law- 
giver, and brought it with them when they returned from 
captivity by the benevolence of Cyrus, King of Persia ; for it 
is evident, from the silence of all the books of the Bible upon 



192 HEPLY TO THE BISHOP 

the subject of the Creation, that the Jews had no cosmogony 
before that time. If they had a cosmogony from the time of 
Moses, some of their judges who governed during more than 
four hundred years, or of their kings, the Davids and Solo- 
mons of their day, who governed nearly five hundred years, 
or of their prophets and psalmists, who lived in the meantime, 
would have mentioned it. It would, either as fact or fable, 
have been the grandest of all subjects for a psalm. It would 
have suited to a tittle the ranting, poetical genius of Isaiah, or 
served as a cordial to the gloomy Jeremiah. But not one 
word nor even a whisper, does any of the Bible authors give 
upon the subject. 

To conceal the theft, the Rabbins of the second temple have 
published Genesis as a book of Moses, and have enjoined 
secrecy to all their people, who, by travelling or otherwise, 
might happen to discover from whence the cosmogony was 
borrowed, not to tell it. The evidence of circumstances is 
often unanswerable, and there is no other than this which I 
have given that goes to the whole of the case, and this does. 

Diogenes Laertius, an ancient and respectable author, whom 
the Bishop, in his answer to me, quotes on another occasion, 
has a passage that corresponds with the solution here given. 
In speaking of the religion of the Persians, as promulgated 
by their priests or magi, he says the Jewish Rabbins were the 
successors of their doctrine. Having thus spoken on the 
plagiarism, and on the non-reality of the book of Genesis, I 
will give some additional evidence that Moses is not the author 
of that book. 

Eben-Ezra, a celebrated Jewish author, who lived about 
seven hundred years ago, and whom the Bishop allows to 
have been a man of great erudition, has made a great many 
observations, too numerous to_ be repeated here, to show that 
Moses was not, and could not be, the author of the book of 
Genesis, nor any of the five books that bear his name. 

Spinosa, another learned Jew, who lived about a hundred 
and thirty years ago, recites, in his Treatise on the Ceremo- 
nies of the Jews, Ancient and Modern, the observations of 
Eben-Ezra, to which he adds many others, to show that Moses 
is not the author of these books. He so says, and shows his 
reasons for saying it, that the Bible did not exist, as a book, 
till the time of the Maccabees, which was more than a hun 



OF LLANDAFF. 193 

dred years after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian 
captivity. 

In the second part of the Age of Reason, I have, among 
other things, referred to nine verses in the 36th chapter of 
G-enesis, beginning at the 31st verse, " These are the kings 
that reigned in Edom, before there reigned any king over the 
children of Israel," which it is impossible could have been 
written by Moses, or in the time of Moses, and could not 
have been written till after the Jew kings began to reign in 
Israel, which was not till several hundred years after the time 
of Moses. 

The Bishop allows this, and says, "I think you say true." 
But he then quibbles, and says, that a small addition to a 
book does not destroy either the genuineness or authenticity 
of the whole book. This is priestcraft. These verses do not 
stand in the book as an addition to it, but as making a part 
of the whole book, and which it is impossible that Moses could 
write. The Bishop would reject the antiquity of any other 
book, if it could be proved from the words of the book itself 
that a part of it could not have been written till several hun- 
dred years after the reputed author of it was dead. He would 
call such a book a forgery. I am authorized, therefore, to call 
the book of Genesis a forgery. 

Combining, then, all the foregoing circumstances together 
respecting the antiquity and authenticity of the book of 
Genesis, a conclusion will naturally follow therefrom ; those 
circumstances are, — 

First, that certain parts of the book cannot possibly have 
been written by Moses, and that the other parts carry no evi- 
dence of having been written by him. 

Secondly, the universal silence of all the following books 
of the Bible, for about a thousand years, upon the extraordi- 
nary things spoken of in Genesis, such as the creation of the 
world in six days ; the garden of Eden ; the tree of know- 
ledge ; the tree of life ; the story of Eve and the serpent ; the 
fall of man, and his being turned out of this fine garden, 
together with Noah's flood, and the tower of Babel. 

Thirdly, the silence of all the books of the Bible upon even 
the name of Moses, from the book of Joshua until the second 
book of Kings, which was not written till after the captivity, 
for it gives an account of the captivity, a period of about a 

vol. i. — 13 



194 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

thousand years. Strange, that a man who is proclaimed as 
the historian of the Creation, the privy-counsellor and confi- 
dant of the Almighty — the legislator of the Jewish nation, 
and the founder of its religion ; strange, I say, that even the 
name of such a man should not find a place in their books for 
a thousand years, if they knew or believed anything about 
him, or the books he is said to have written. 

Fourthly, the opinion of some of the most celebrated of the 
Jewish commentators, that Moses is not the author of the book 
of Genesis, founded on the reasons given for that opinion. 

Fifthly, the opinion of the early Christian writers, and of 
the great champion of Jewish literature, Maimonides, that the 
book of G-enesis is not a book of facts. 

Sixthly, the silence imposed by all the Jewish Rabbins, and 
by Maimonides himself, upon the Jewish nation, not to speak 
of anything they may happen to know, or discover, respecting 
the cosmogony (or creation of the world) in the book of 
Genesis. 
L From these circumstances, the following conclusions offer : 

First, that the book of Genesis is not a book of facts. 

Secondly, that as no mention is made throughout the Bible 
of any of the extraordinary things related in Genesis, that it 
has not been written till after the other books were written, 
and put as a preface to the Bible. Every one knows that a 
preface to a book, though it stands first, is the last written. 

Thirdly, that the silence imposed by all the Jewish Rabbins, 
and by Maimonides upon the Jewish nation, to keep silence 
upon everything related in their cosmogony, evinces a secret 
they are not willing should be known. The secret therefore 
explains itself to be, that when the Jews were in captivity in 
Babylon and Persia, they became acquainted with the cos- 
mogony of the Persians, as registered in the Zend-Avesta, of 
Zoroaster, the Persian lawgiver, which, after their return from 
captivity, they manufactured and modelled as their own, and 
ante-dated it by giving to it the name of Moses. The case 
admits of no other explanation. From all which, it appears, 
that the book of Genesis, instead of being the oldest book in 
the world, as the Bishop calls it, has been the last-written 
book of the Bible, and that the cosmogony it contains has 
been manufactured. 



OF LLANDAFF. 195 



On the Names in the Book of Genesis. 

Everything in Genesis serves as evidence or symptom, that 
the book has been composed in some late period of the Jewish 
nation. Even the names mentioned in it serve to this pur- 
pose. 

Nothing is more common or more natural, than to name the 
children of succeeding generations after the names of those 
who had been celebrated in some former generation. This 
holds good with respect to all the people, and all the histories 
we know of, and it does not hold good with the Bible, There 
must be some cause for this. 

This book of Genesis tells us of a man whom it calls Adam, 
and of his sons Abel and Seth ; of Enoch, who lived 365 years 
(it is exactly the number of days in a year), and that then God 
took him up. It has the appearance of being taken from some 
allegory of the Gentiles on the commencement and termina- 
tion of the year, by the progress of the sun through the twelve 
signs of the Zodiac, on which the allegorical religion of the 
Gentiles was founded. 

It tells us of Methuselah, who lived 969 years, and of a 
long train of other names in the fifth chapter. It then passes 
on to a man whom it calls Noah, and his sons, Shem, Ham, 
and Japhet : then to Lot, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and his 
sons, with which the book of Genesis finishes. 

All these, according to the account given in that book, were 
the most extraordinary and celebrated of men. They were, 
moreover, heads of families. Adam was the father of the 
world. Enoch, for his righteousness, was taken up to heaven. 
Methuselah lived to almost a thousand years. He was the 
son of Enoch, the man of 365, the number of days in a year. 
It has the appearance of being the continuation of an allegory 
on the 365 days of a year, and its abundant productions. Noah 
was selected from all the world to be preserved when it was 
drowned, and became the second father of the world. Abra- 
ham was the father of the faithful multitude. Isaac and Jacob 
were the inheritors of his fame, and the last was the father 
of the twelve tribes. 

Now, if these very wonderful men, and their names, and 
the book that records them, had been known by the Jews be- 



196 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

fore the Babylonian captivity, those names would have been 
as common among the Jews before that -period as they have 
been since- We now hear of thousands of Abrahams, Isaacs, 
and Jacobs among the Jews, but there were none of that 
name before the Babylonian captivity. The Bible does not 
mention one, though from the time that Abraham is said to 
have lived, to the time of the Babylonian captivity, is about 
1400 years. 

How is it to be accounted for that there have been so many 
thousands, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Jews of the 
names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob since that period, and 
not one before ? It can be accounted for but one way, which 
is, that before the Bab}4onian captivity the Jews had no such 
books as Genesis, nor knew anything of the names and persons 
it mentions, nor of the things it relates, and that the stories 
in it have been manufactured since that time. From the 
Arabic name Ibrahim (which is the manner the Turks write 
that name to this day) the Jews have, most probably, manu- 
factured their Abraham. 

I will advance my observations a point further, and speak 
of the names of Moses and Aaron, mentioned for the first time 
in the book of Exodus. There are now, and have continued 
to be, from the time of the Babylonian captivity, or soon after 
it, thousands of Jews of the names of Moses and Aaron, and 
we read not of any of that name before that time. The Bible 
does not mention one. The direct inference from this is, that 
the Jews knew of no such book as Exodus before the Baby- 
lonian captivity. In fact, that it did not exist before that 
time, and tbat it is only since the book has been invented, 
that the names of Moses and Aaron have been common among 
the Jews. 

It is applicable to the purpose to observe, that the pictur- 
esque work, called Mosaic-work, spelled the same as you would 
say the Mosaic account of the Creation, is not derived from 
the word Moses, but from Muses (the Muses), because of the 
variegated and picturesque pavement in the temples dedicated 
to the Muses. This carries a strong implication that the name 
Moses is drawn from the same source, and that he is not a 
real but an allegorical person, as Maimonides describes what 
is called the Mosaic account of the Creation to be. 

I will go a point still further. The Jews now know the 



OF LLANDAFF. 197 

book of Genesis, and the names of all the persons mentioned 
in the first ten chapters of that book, from Adam to Noah : 
yet we do not hear (I speak for myself) of any Jew, of the 
present day, of the name of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enoch, Me- 
thuselah, Noah,* Shem, Ham, or Japhet (names mentioned 
in the first ten chapters), though these were, according to the 
account in that book, the most extraordinary of all the names 
that make up the catalogue of the Jewish chronology. 

The names the Jews now adopt, are those that are men- 
tioned in Genesis after the tenth chapter, as Abraham, Isaac, 
Jacob, &c. How then does it happen, that they do not adopt 
the names found in the first ten chapters? Here is evidently 
a line of division drawn between the first ten chapters of Gen- 
esis, and the remaining chapters, with respect to the adoption 
of names. There must be some cause for this, and I go to 
offer a solution of the problem. 

The reader will recollect the quotation I have already made 
from the Jewish Rabbin Maimonides, wherein he says, " We 
ought not to understand nor to take according to the letter 
that which is written in the book of the Creation. It is a 
maxim (says he) which all our sages repeat above all, with 
respect to the work of six days." 

The qualifying expression above all, implies there are other 
parts of the book, though not so important, that ought not to 
be understood or taken according to the letter, and as the 
Jews do not adopt the names mentioned in the first ten chap- 
ters, it appears evident those chapters are included in the in- 
junction not to take them in a literal sense, or according to 
the letter ; from which it follows, that the persons or charac- 
ters mentioned in the first ten chapters, as Adam, Abel, Seth, 
Enoch, Methuselah, and so on to Noah, are not real but ficti- 
tious or allegorical persons, and therefore the Jews do not adopt 
their names into their families. If they affixed the same idea 
of reality to them as they do to those that follow after the 
tenth chapter, the names of Adam, Abel, Seth, &c, would be 
as common among the Jews of the present day, as are those 
of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron. 

In the superstition they have been in, scarcely a Jew family 

* Noah is an exception; there are of that name among the Jews. 
— Editor. 



198 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

would have been without an Enoch, as a presage of his going 
to heaven as ambassador for the whole family. Every mother 
who wished that the days of her son might be long in the 
land would call him 3Iethuselah ; and all the Jews that might 
have to traverse the ocean would be named Noah, as a charm 
against shipwreck and drowning. 

This is domestic evidence against the book of Genesis, 
which, joined to the several kinds of evidence before recited, 
show the book of Genesis not to be older than the Babylonian 
captivity, and to be fictitious. I proceed to fix the character 
and antiquity of the book of 

JOB. 

The book of Job has not the least appearance of being a 
book of the Jews, and though printed among the books of the 
Bible, does not belong to it. There is no reference in it to 
any Jewish law or ceremony. On the contrary, all the inter- 
nal evidence it contains shows it to be a book of the Gentiles, 
either of Persia or Chaldea. 

The name of Job does not appear to be a Jewish name. 
There is no Jew of that name in any of the books of the Bible, 
neither is there now that I ever heard of. The country where 
Job is said or supposed to have lived, or rather where the 
scene of the drama is laid, is called Uz, and there was no 
place of that name ever belonging to the Jews. If Uz is the 
same as Ur, it was in Chaldea, the country of the Gentiles. 

The Jews can give no account how they came by this book, 
nor who was the author, nor the time when it was written. 
Origen, in his work against Celsus (in the first ages of the 
Christian Church), says, that the book of Job is older than 
Moses. Eben-Ezra, the Jewish commentator, whom (as I 
have before said) the Bishop allows to have been a man of 
great erudition, and who certainly understood his own lan- 
guage, says that the book of Job has been translated from ano- 
ther language into Hebrew. Spinosa, another Jewish com- 
mentator of great learning, confirms the opinion of Eben-Ezra, 
and says moreover, u Je crois que Job ctait Gentle;"* I be- 
lieve that Job was a Gentile. 

* Spinosa on the Ceremonies of tlie Jews, page 29G, published in 
French at Amsterdam, 1678. 



OF LLANDAFF. 199 

The Bishop (in his answer to me) says, " that the structure 
of the whole book of Job, in whatever light of history or dra- 
ma it be considered, is founded on the belief that prevailed 
with the Persians and Chaldeans, and other Gentile nations, 
of a good and an evil spirit." 

In speaking of the good and evil spirit of the Persians, the 
Bishop writes them Arimanius and Oromasdes. I will not 
lispute about the orthography, because I know that translated 
names are differently spelled in different languages. But he 
has nevertheless made a capital error. He has put the Devil 
first; for Arimanius, or, as it is more generally written, Ahri- 
man, is the evil spirit, and Oromasdes or Ormusd the good 
spirit. He has made the same mistake, in the same para- 
graph, in speaking of the good and evil spirit of the ancient 
Egyptians Osiris and Typho, he puts Typho before Osiris. 
The error is just the same as if the Bishop, in writing about 
the Christian religion, or in preaching a sermon, were to say 
the Devil and God. A priest ought to know his own trade 
better. "We agree, however, about the structure of the book 
of Job, that it is Gentile. I have said in the second part of 
the Age of Reason, and given my reasons for it, that the 
drama of it is not Hebrew. 

From the testimonies I have cited, that of Origen, who, 
about fourteen hundred years ago, said that the book of Job 
was more ancient than Moses, that of Eben-Ezra, who in his 
commentary on Job, says, it has been translated from another 
language (and consequently from a Gentile language) into 
Hebrew ; that of Spinosa, who not only says the same thing, 
but that the author of it was a Gentile; and that of the 
Bishop, who says that the structure of the whole book is 
Gentile. It follows then, in the first place, that the book of 
Job is not a book of the Jews originally. 

Then, in order to determine to what people or nation any 
book of religion belongs, we must compare it with the leading 
dogmas and precepts of that people or nation ; and therefore, 
upon the Bishop's own construction, the book of Job belongs 
either to the ancient Persians, the Chaldeans, or the Egyp- 
tians ) because the structure of it is consistent with the dogma 
they held, that of a good and evil spirit, called in Job, God 
and Satan, existing as distinct and separate beings, and it is 
not consistent with any dogma of the Jews. 

The belief of a good and an evil spirit, existing as distinct and 



200 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

separate beings, is not a dogma to be found in any of the 
books of the Bible. It is not till we come to the New Testa- 
ment that we hear of any such dogma. There the person 
called the Son of God, holds conversation with Satan on a 
mountain, as familiarly as is represented in the drama of Job. 
Consequently the Bishop cannot say, in this respect, that the 
New Testament is founded upon the Old. According to the 
Old, the God of the Jews was the God of everything. All 
good and all evil came from him. According to Exodus it 
was God, and not the Devil, that hardened Pharaoh's heart. 
According to the book of Samuel it was an evil spirit from 
God that troubled Saul. And Ezekiel makes God to say, in 
speaking of the Jews, " I gave them the statutes that were not 
good, and judgments by which they should not live." The 
Bible describes the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in such 
a contradictory manner, and under such a two-fold character, 
there would be no knowing when he was in earnest and when 
in irony ; when to believe, and when not. As to the precepts, 
principles, and maxims, in the book of Job, they show that 
the people, abusively called the heathen in the books of the 
the Jews, had the most sublime ideas of the Creator, and the 
most exalted devotional morality. It was the Jews who dis- 
honoured God. It was the Gentiles who glorified him. As 
to the fabulous personifications introduced by the Greek and 
Latin poets, it was a corruption of the ancient religion of the 
Gentiles, which consisted in the adoration of a first cause of 
the works of the creation, in which the sun was the great 
visible agent. 

It appears to have been a religion of gratitude and adoration, 
and not of prayer and discontented solicitation. In Job we 
find adoration and submission, but not prayer. Even the ten 
commandments enjoin not prayer. Prayer has been added to 
devotion, by the church of Rome, as the instrument of fees 
and perquisites. All prayers by the priests of the Christiau 
church, whether public or private, must be paid for. It may 
be right, individually, to pray for virtues, or mental instruc- 
tion, but not for things. It is an attempt to dictate to the 
Almighty in the government of the world. But to return to 
the book of Job. 

As the book of Job decides itself to be a book of the Gen- 



OP LLANDAFF. 201 

tiles, the next thing is to find out to what particular nation 
it belongs, and lastly, what is its antiquity. 

As a composition, it is sublime, beautiful, and scientific : 
full of sentiment, and abounding in grand metaphorical 
description. As a drama, it is regular. The dramatis per- 
sonae, the persons performing the several parts, are regularly 
introduced, and speak without interruption or confusion. The 
scene, as I have before said, is laid in the country of the 
Gentiles, and the unities, though not always necessary in a 
drama, are observed here as strictly as the subject would 
admit. 

In the lasc act, where the Almighty is introduced as speak- 
ing from the whirlwind, to decide the controversy between 
Job and his friends, it is an idea as grand as poetical imagina- 
tion can conceive. What follows of Job's future prosperity 
does not belong to it as a drama. It is an epilogue of the 
writer, as the first verses of the first chapter, which gave an 
account of Job, his country and his riches, are the prologue. 

The book carries the appearance of being the work of some 
of the Persian Magi, not only because the structure of it 
corresponds to the dogmas of the religion of those people, as 
founded by Zoroaster, but from the astronomical references in 
it to the constellations of the Zodiac and other objects in the 
heavens, of which the sun, in their religion called Mithra, was 
the chief. Job, in describing the power of God (Job ix. v. 
27,) says, " Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, and 
sealeth up the stars — who alone spreadeth out the heavens, 
and treadeth upon the waves of the sea — who maketh Arctu- 
rus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south." 
All this astronomical allusion is consistent with the religion 
of the Persians. 

Establishing then the book of Job, as the work of some of 
the Persian or Eastern Magi, the case naturally follows, that 
when the Jews returned from captivity, by the permission of 
Cyrus, king of Persia, they brought this book with them : had 
it translated into Hebrew, and put into their scriptural canons, 
which were not formed till after their return. This will 
account for the name of Job being mentioned in Ezekiel 
(Ezekiel, chap. xiv. v. 14,) who was one of the captives, and 
also for its not being mentioned in any book said or supposed 
to have been written before the captivity. 



202 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

Among the astronomical allusions in the book, there i3 one 
which serves to fix its antiquity. It is that where G-od is 
made to say to Job, in the style of reprimand, " Canst thou 
hind the sweet influences of Pleiades." (Chap, xxxviii., 
ver. 31.) As the explanation of this depends upon astrono- 
mical calculation, I will, for the sake of those who would not 
otherwise understand it, endeavour to explain it as clearly as 
the subject will admit. 

The Pleiades are a cluster of pale, milky stars, about the 
size of a man's hand, in the constellation of Taurus, or in 
English, the Bull. It is one of the constellations of the 
Zodiac, of which there are twelve, answering to the twelve 
months of the year. The Pleiades are visible in the winter 
nights, but not in the summer nights, being then below the 
horizon. 

The Zodiac is an imaginary belt or circle in the heavens, 
eighteen degrees broad, in which the sun apparently makes 
his annual course, and in which all the planets move. When 
the sun appears to our view to be between us and the group 
of stars forming such or such a constellation, he is said to be 
in that constellation. Consequently the constellations he ap- 
pears to be in, in the summer, are directly opposite to those 
he appeared in, in the winter, and the same with respect to 
spring and autumn. 

The Zodiac, besides being divided into twelve constellations, 
is also, like every other circle, great or small, divided into 
360 eqnal parts, called degrees ; consequently each constella- 
tion contains 30 degrees. The constellations of the Zodiac are 
generally called signs, to distinguish them from the constella- 
tions that are placed out of the Zodiac, and this is the name 
I shall now use. 

The precession of the equinoxes is the part most difficult 
to explain, and it is on this that the explanation chiefly de- 
pends. 

The equinoxes correspond to the two seasons of the year, 
when the sun makes equal day and night. 



OF LLANDAFF. 203 



The following is a disconnected part of the same loorh, and 
was first published in 1824. 

SABBATH OB SUNDAY. 

The seventh day, or more properly speaking, the period of 
seven days, was originally a numerical division of time, and 
nothing more ; and had the bishop been acquainted with the 
history of astronomy he would have known this. The annual 
revolution of the earth makes what we call a year. 

The year is artificially divided into months, the months into 
weeks of seven days, the days into hours, &c. The period 
of seven days, like any other of the artificial divisions of the 
year, is only a fractional part thereof, contrived for the con- 
venience of counters. 

It is ignorance, imposition, and priestcraft, that have called 
it otherwise. They might as well talk of the Lord's month, 
of the Lord's week, of the Lord's hour, as of the Lord's day. 
All time is his, and no part of it is more holy or more sacred 
than another. It is however necessary to the trade of a priest 
that he should preach up a distinction of days. 

Before the science of astronomy was studied and carried to 
the degree of eminence to which it was by the Egyptians and 
Chaldeans, the people of those times had no other helps, than 
what common observation of the very visible changes of the 
sun and moon afforded, to enable them to keep an account of 
the progress of time. As far as history establishes the point, 
the Egyptians were the first people who divided the year into 
twelve months. Herodotus, who lived above two thousand 
two hundred years ago, and is the most ancient historian 
whose works have reached our time, says, they did this by the 
knowledge they had of the stars. As to the Jews, there is not 
one single improvement in any science or in any scientific art, 
that they ever produced. They were the most ignorant of all 
the illiterate world. If the word of the Lord had come to 
them, as they pretend, and as the bishop professes to believe, 
and that they were to be the harbingers of it to the rest of the 
world j the Lord would have taught them the use of letters, and 
the art of printing; for without the means of communicating 
the word it could not be communicated ; whereas letters were 



204 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

the invention of the G-entile world ; and printing of the 
modern world. But to return to my subject — 

Before the helps which the science of astronomy afforded, 
the people, as before said, had no other, whereby to keep an 
account of the progress of time, than what the common and 
very visible changes of the sun and moon afforded. They 
saw that a great number of days made a year, but the account 
of them was too tedious, and too difficult to be kept numerically, 
from one to three hundred and sixty -five ; neither did they 
know the true time of a solar year. It therefore became 
necessary, for the purpose of marking the progress of days, to 
put them into small parcels, such as are now called weeks; 
and which consisted as they now do of seven days. By this 
means the memory was assisted as it is with us at this day; 
for we do not say of anything that is past, that it was fifty, 
sixty, or seventy days ago, but that it was so many weeks, or 
or if longer time,.so many months. It is impossible to keep 
an account of time without helps of this kind. 

Julian Scaliger, the inventor of the Julian period of 7,980 
years, produced by multiplying the cycle of the moon, the 
cycle of the sun, and the years of an indiction, 19, 28, 15, into 
each other; says, that the custom of reckoning by periods of 
seven days was used by the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the 
Hebrews, the people of India, the Arabs, and by all the 
nations of the East. 

In addition to what Scaliger says, it is evident that in Bri- 
tain, in Germany, and the north of Europe, they reckoned 
by periods of seven days, long before the book called the 
Bible was known in those parts ; and consequently that they 
did not take that mode of reckoning from anything written in 
that book. 

That they reckoned by periods of seven days, is evident 
from their having seven names, and no more, for the several 
days ; and which have not the most distant relation to any- 
thing in the book of Genesis, or to that which is called the 
fourth commandment. 

Those names are still retained in England, with no other 
alteration than what has been produced by moulding the Saxon 
and Danish languages into modern English. 

1. Sun-day from Sunnc, the sun, and dag, day, Saxon, Son- 
dag, Danish. The day dedicated to the sun. 



OF LLANDAFF. 205 

2. Monday, that is, moonday, from Mona, the moon, Saxon, 
Moano, Danish. Day dedicated to the moon. 

3. Tuesday, that is, Tuisco's-day. The day dedicated to 
the idol Tuisco. 

4. Wednesday, that is, Woden's-day. The day dedicated 
to Woden, the Mars of the Germans. 

5. Thursday, that is, Thors-day, dedicated to the idol 
Thor. 

6. Friday, that is, Friga's-day. The day dedicated to 
Friga, the Venus of the Saxons. 

Saturday, from Seaten (^Saturn), an idol of the Saxons; 
one of the emblems representing time, which continually ter- 
minates and renews itself: the last day of the period of seven 
days. When we see a certain mode of reckoning general 
among nations totally unconnected, differing from each other 
in religion and in government, and some of them unknown to 
each other, we may be certain that it arises from some natural 
and common cause, prevailing alike over all, and which strikes 
every one in the same manner. Thus all nations have reck- 
oned arithmetically by tens, because the people of all nations 
have ten fingers. If they had more or less than ten, the mode 
of arithmetical reckoning would have followed that number, 
for the fingers are a natural numeration-table to all the world. 
I now come to show why the period of seven days is so gene- 
rally adopted. 

Though the sun is the great luminary of the world, and the 
animating cause of all the fruits of the earth, the moon, by 
renewing herself more than twelve times oftener than the sun, 
which it does but once a year, served the rustic world as a 
natural almanac, as the fingers served it for a numeration- 
table. All the world could see the moon, her changes, and 
her monthly revolutions ; and their mode of reckoning time 
was accommodated as nearly as could possibly be done in 
round numbers, to agree with the changes of that planet, their 
natural almanac. 

The Moon performs her natural revolution round the earth 
in twenty-nine days and a half. She goes from a new moon 
to a half moon, to a full moon, to a half moon gibbous or 
convex, and then to a new moon again. Each of these changes 
is performed in seven days and nine hours ; but seven days is 
the nearest division in round numbers that could be taken ; 
18 



206 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

and this was sufficient to suggest the universal custom of reck- 
oning by periods of seven days, since it is impossible to reckon 
time without some stated period. 

How the odd hours could be disposed of without interfering 
with the regular periods of seven days, in case the ancients 
recommenced a new Septenary period with every new moon, 
required no more difficulty than it did to regulate the Egyptian 
calendar afterwards, of twelve months of thirty days each, or 
the odd hour in the Julian calendar, or the odd days and 
hours in the French calendar. In all cases it is done by the 
addition of complementary days ; and it can be done in no 
otherwise. 

The Bishop knows that as the solar year does not end at 
the termination of what we call a day, but runs some hours 
into the next day, as the quarters of the moon runs some hours 
beyond seven days ; that it is impossible to give the year any 
fixed number of days, that will not in course of years become 
wrong, and make a complementary time necessary to keep the 
nominal year parallel with the solar year. The same must 
have been the case with those who regulated time formerly by 
lunar revolutions. They would have to add three days to 
every second moon, or in that proportion, in order to make 
the new moon and the new week commence together, like the 
nominal year and the solar year. 

Diodorus of Sicily, who, as before said, lived before Christ 
was born, in giving an account of times much anterior to his 
own, speaks of years, of three months, of four months, of six 
months. These could be of no other than years composed of 
lunar revolutions, and therefore to bring the several periods 
of seven days to agree with such years, there must have been 
complementary days. 

The moon was the first almanac the world knew ; and the 
only one which the face of the heavens afforded to common 
spectators. Her changes and her revolutions have entered 
into all the calendars that have been known in the known 
world. 

The division of the year into twelve months, which, as be- 
fore shown, was first done by the Egyptians, though arranged 
with astronomical knowledge, had reference to the twelve 
moons, or, more properly speaking, to the twelve lunar revo- 
lutions that appear in the space of a solar year j as the period 



OF LLANDAFF. 207 

of seven days had reference to one revolution of the moon. 
The feasts of the Jews were, and those of the Christian 
Church still are, regulated by the moon. The Jews observed 
the feasts of the new moon and full moon, and therefore the 
period of seven days was necessary to them. 

All the feasts of the Christian Church are regulated by the 
moon. That called Easter governs all the rest, and the moon 
governs Easter. It is always the first Sunday after the first 
full moon that happens after the vernal Equinox, or 21st of 
March. 

In proportion as the science of astronomy was studied and 
improved by the Egyptians and Chaldeans, and the solar year 
regulated by astronomical observations, the custom of reckon- 
ing by lunar revolutions became of less use, and in time dis- 
continued. But such is the harmony of all parts of the ma- 
chinery of the universe, that a calculation made from the mo- 
tion of one part will correspond with some other. 

The period of seven days deduced from the revolution of 
the moon round the earth, corresponded nearer than any other 
period of days would do to the revolution of the earth round 
the sun. Fifty-two periods of seven days make 864, which is 
within one day and some odd hours of a solar year ) and there 
is no other periodical number that will do the same, till we 
come to the number thirteen, which is too great for common 
use, and the numbers before seven are too small. The custom, 
therefore, of reckoning by periods of seven days, as best suited 
to the revolution of the moon, applied with equal convenience 
to the solar year, and became united with it. But the decimal 
division of time, as regulated by the French calendar, is supe- 
rior to every other method. 

There is no part of the bible, that is supposed to have been 
written by persons who lived before the time of Josiah, (which 
was a thousand years after the time of Moses,) that mentions 
anything about the Sabbath, as a day consecrated by that 
which is called the fourth commandment, or that the Jews 
kept any such day. Had any such day been kept, during the 
thousand years of which I am speaking, it certainly would 
have been mentioned frequently* and that it should never be 
mentioned, is strong, presumptive, and circumstantial evidence 
that no such day was kept. But mention is often made of the 
feasts of the new-moon, and of the full-moon ; for the Jews, as 



208 REPLY TO THE BIEHOP 

before shown, worshipped the moon ; and the word sabbath was 
applied by the Jews to the feasts of that planet, and to those 
of their other deities. It is said in Hosea, chap. 2, ver. 11, 
in speaking of the Jewish nation, " And I will cause all her 
mirth to cease, her feast-days, her new-moons and her sab- 
baths, and all her solemn feasts." Nobody will be so fool- 
ish as to contend that the sabbaths here spoken of are Mosaic 
sabbaths. The construction of the verse implies they are 
lunar sabbaths, or sabbaths of the moon. It ought also to be 
observed that Hosea lived in the time of Ahaz and Hezekiah, 
about seventy years before the time of Josiah, when the law 
called the law of Moses is said to have been found ; and con- 
sequently, the sabbaths that Hosea speaks of are sabbaths of 
the Idolatry. 

When those priestly reformers, (impostors I should call 
them) Hilkiah, Ezra, and Nehemiah, began to produce books 
under the name of the books of Moses, they found the word 
sabbath in use ; and as to the period of seven days, it is, like 
numbering arithmetically by tens, from time immemorial. 
But having found them in use, they continued to make them 
serve to the support of their new imposition. They trumped 
up a story of the creation being made in six days, and of the 
Creator resting on the seventh, to suit with the lunar and 
chronological period of seven days ; and they manufactured 
a commandment to agree with both. Impostors always work 
in this manner. They put fables for originals, and causes for 
effects. 

There is scarcely any part of science, or anything in nature, 
which those impostors and blasphemers of science called priests, 
as well Christians as Jews, have not, at some time or other, 
perverted, or sought to pervert to the purpose of superstition 
and falsehood. Everything wonderful in appearance, has been 
ascribed to angels, to devils, or to saints. Everything ancient 
has some legendary tale annexed to it. The common opera- 
tions of nature have not escaped their practice of corrupting 
everything. 



OP LLANDAFF. 209 



FUTURE STATE. 

The idea of a future state was an universal idea to all na- 
tions except the Jews. At the time and long before Jesus 
Christ and the men called his disciples were born, it had been 
sublimely treated of by Cicero in his book on old age, by 
Plato, Socrates, Xenophon, and other of the ancient theolo- 
gists, whom the abusive Christian church calls Heathen. 
Xenophon represents the elder Cyrus speaking after this man- 
ner : — 

" Think not, my dearest children, that when I depart from 
you, I shall be no more; but remember that my soul, even 
while I lived among you, was invisible to you ; yet by my 
actions you were sensible it existed in this body. Believe it 
therefore existing still, though it be still unseen. How quickly 
would the honours of illustrious men perish after death, if their 
souls performed nothing to preserve their fame ? For my own 
part, I could never think that the soul, while in a mortal body, 
lives • but when departed from it, dies j or that its conscious- 
ness is lost, when it is discharged out of an unconscious habi- 
tation. But when it is freed from all corporeal alliance, it is 
then that it truly exists." 

Since then the idea of a future existence was universal, it 
may be asked, what new doctrine does the New Testament 
contain ? I answer, that of corrupting the theory of the an- 
cient theologists, by annexing to it the heavy and gloomy 
doctrine of the resurrection of the body. 

As to the resurrection of the body, whether the same body 
or another, it is a miserable conceit, fit only to be preached to 
man as an animal. It is not worthy to be called doctrine. — 
Such an idea never entered the brain of any visionary but 
those of the Christian church : — yet it is in this that the 
novelty of the New Testament consists. All the other 
matters serve but as props to this, and those props are most 
wretchedly put together. 
18* 



210 KEPLY TO THE BISHOP 



MIRACLES. 

The Christian church is full of miracles. In one of the 
churches of Brabant, thej show a number of cannon balls, 
which they say, the Virgin Mary, in some former war, caught 
in her muslin apron as they came roaring out of the cannon's 
mouth, and prevented their hurting the Saints of ber fa- 
vourite army. She does no such feats now-a-days. Perhaps 
the reason is, that the infidels have taken away her muslin 
apron. They show also, between Montmartre and the village 
of St. Dennis, several places where they say St. Dennis stopt 
with his head in his hands after it had been cut off at Mont- 
martre. The Protestants will call those things lies ; and where 
is the proof that all the other things called miracles are not 
as great lies as those ? 

[There appears to he an omission here in the copy.~\ 

Christ, say those Cabalists, came in the fulness of time. 
And pray what is the fulness of time ? The words admit of 
no idea. They are perfectly Cabalistical. Time is a word in- 
vented to describe to our conception a greater or less portion 
of eternity. It may be a minute, a portion of eternity mea- 
sured by the vibration of a pendulum of a certain length : — 
it may be a day, a year, a hundred, or a thousand years, or 
any other quantity. Those portions are only greater or less 
comparatively. 

The word fulness applies not to any of them. The idea 
of fulness of time cannot be conceived. A woman with child 
and ready for delivery, as Mary was when Christ was born, 
may be said to have gone her full time ; but it is the woman 
that is full, not time. 

It may also be said figuratively, in certain cases, that the 
times are full of events ; but time itself is incapable of being 
full of itself. Ye hypocrites ! learn to speak intelligible 
language. 

It happened to be a time of peace when they say Christ was 
born ; and what then ? There had been many such intervals; 
and have been many such since. Time was no fuller in any 
of them than in the other. If he were he would be fuller 
now than he ever was before. If he was full then he must be 



OF LLANDAFF. 211 

bursting now. But peace or war have relation to circum- 
stances, and not to time ; and those Cabalists would be at as 
much loss to make out any meaning to fulness of circum- 
stances, as to fulness of time ; and if they could, it would be 
fatal -, for fulness of circumstances would mean, when there is 
no -more time to follow. 

Christ, therefore, like every other person, was neither in the 
fulness of one nor the other. 

But though we cannot conceive the idea of fulness of time, 
because we cannot have conception of a time when there shall 
be no time ; nor of fulness of circumstance, because we cannot 
conceive a state of existence to be without circumstances ; we 
can often see, after a thing is past, if any circumstance, neces- 
sary to give the utmost activity and success to that thing, was 
wanting at the time that thing took place. If such a circum- 
stance was wanting, we may be certain that the thing which 
took place, was not a thing of G-od's ordaining; whose work 
is always perfect means. They tell us that Christ was the Son 
of God ; in that case, he would have known everything ; and 
he came upon earth to make known the will of God to man 
throughout the whole earth. If this had been true, Christ 
would have known and would have been furnished with all the 
possible means of doing it ; and would have instructed man- 
kind, or at least his apostles, in the use of such of the means 
as they could use themselves to facilitate the accomplishment 
of the mission ; consequently he would have instructed them 
in the art of printing, for the press is the tongue of the world; 
and without which his or their preaching was less than a 
whistle compared to thunder. Since then he did not do this, 
he had not the means necessary to the mission ; and conse- 
quently had not the mission. 

They tell us in the book of Acts, chap, ii., a very stupid 
story of the Apostles' having the gift of tongues ; and cloven 
tongues of fire descended and sat upon each of them. Per- 
haps it was this story of cloven tongues that gave rise to the 
notion of slitting Jack-daws' tongues to make them talk. Be 
that however as it may, the gift of tongues, even if it were 
true, would be but of little use without the art of printing. 
I can sit in my chamber as I do while writing this, and by the 
aid of printing, can send the thoughts I am writing through 
the greatest part of Europe, to the East Indies, and over all 






212 REPLY TO THE BISHOP 

North America in a few months. They had not the means, 
and the want of means detects the pretended mission. 

There are three modes of communication. Speaking, 
writing, and printing. The first is exceedingly limited. A 
man's voice can be heard but a few yards of distance; and his 
person can be but in one place. 

Writing is much more extensive ; but the thing written can- 
not be multiplied but at great expense, and the multiplication 
will be slow and incorrect. Were there no other means of cir- 
culating what priests call the word of God (the Old and New 
Testament) than by writing copies, those copies could not be 
purchased at less than forty pounds sterling each ; conse- 
quently but few people could purchase them, while the 
writers could scarcely obtain a livelihood by it. But the art 
of printing changes all the cases, and opens a scene as vast 
as the world. It gives to man a sort of divine attribute. It 
gives to him mental omnipresence. He can be everywhere 
and at the same instant ; for wherever he is read he is men- 
tally there. 

The case applies not only against the pretended mission of 
Christ and his Apostles, but against everything that priests 
call the word of God, and against all those who pretend to 
deliver it; for had God ever delivered any verbal word, he 
would have taught the means of communicating it. The one 
without the other is inconsistent with the wisdom we conceive 
of the Creator. 

The third chapter of Genesis, verse 21, tells us that God 
made coats of skins and clothed Adam and Eve. It was infi- 
nitely more important that man should be taught the art of 
printing, than that Adam should be taught to make a pair of 
leather breeches, or his wife a petticoat. 

There is another matter, equally striking and important, 
that connects itself with those observations against this pre- 
tended word of God, this manufactured book, called Revealed 
Religion. 

We know that whatever is of God's doing is unalterable by 
man beyond the laws which the Creator has ordained. We 
cannot make a tree grow with the root in the air and the fruit 
in the ground ; we cannot make Iron into Gold, nor Gold into 
Iron ; we cannot make rays of light shine forth rays of dark- 
ness, nor darkness shine forth light. If there were such a 



OF LLANDAFF. 213 

thing, as a word of God, it would possess the same properties 
which all his other works do. It would resist destructive 
alteration. But we see that the book which they call the 
word of God, has not this property. That book says, Genesis, 
chap. i. v. 27, " So God created man in his own image ;" 
but the printer can make it say, So man created God in his 
own image. The words are passive to every transposition of 
them, or can be annihilated and others put in their places. 
This is not the case with anything that is of God's doing ; and 
therefore this book called the word of God, tried by the same 
universal rule which every other of God's works within our 
reach can be tried by, proves itself to be a forgery. 

The Bishop says, that " miracles are proper proofs of a 
divine mission." Admitted. But we know that men, and 
especially priests, can tell lies, and call them miracles. It is 
therefore necessary, that the thing called a miracle be proved 
to be true, and also to be miraculous ; before it can be admitted 
as proof of the thing called revelation. 

The Bishop must be a bad logician not to know that one 
doubtful thing cannot be admitted as proof that another doubt- 
ful thing is true. It would be like attempting to prove a liar 
not to be a liar, by the evidence of another who is as great a 
liar as himself. 

Though Jesus Christ, by being ignorant of the art of print- 
ing, shows he had not the means necessary to a divine mis- 
sion, and consequently had no such mission ; it does not follow 
that if he had known that art, the divinity of what they call 
his mission would be proved thereby, any more than it proved 
the divinity of the man who invented printing. Something, 
therefore, beyond printing, even if he had known it, was ne- 
cessary as a miracle, to have proved that what he delivered 
was the word of God ; and this was that the book in which 
that word should be contained, which is now called the Old 
and New Testament, should possess the miraculous property, 
distinct from all human books, of resisting alteration. This 
would be not only a miracle, but an ever-existing and universal 
miracle ; whereas those which they tell us of, even if they had 
been true, were momentary and local; they would leave no 
trace behind, after the lapse of a few years, of having ever 
existed : But this would prove, in all ages and in all places, 
the book to be divine and not human, as effectually, and as 



214 REPLY TO THE BISHOP OF LLANDAFP. 

conveniently, as aquafortis proves gold to be gold by not being 
capable of acting upon it; and detects all other metals and all 
counterfeit composition, by dissolving them. Since then the 
only miracle capable of every proof is wanting, and which 
everything that is of divine origin possesses ; all the tales of 
miracles with which the Old and New Testament are filled, 
are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe. 



ORIGIN OF FREE-MASONRY. 



PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 

This tract is a chapter belonging to the third part of the 
Age of Reason, as will be seen by the references made in it 
to preceding articles, as forming a part of the same work. It 
was culled from the writings of Mr. Paine, after his death, 
and published in a mutilated state, by Mrs. Bonneville, his 
executrix. Passages having a reference to the Christian reli- 
gion she erased, with a view, no doubt, of accommodating the 
work to the prejudices of bigotry. These however have been 
restored from the original manuscript, excepting a few lines 
which were rendered illegible. 

The masonic society had committed nothing to print until 
the year 1722, when Doct. Anderson's book of constitutions, 
&c, was ordered by the Grand Lodge to be printed. Since 
that time the masons have published many works respecting 
the fraternity, all of which, through design or want of infor- 
mation, tend to obscure and embarrass the subject; and as the 
society had adopted the custom of the Anglo-Saxon priests, 
called Druids, to keep their proceedings an entire secret, man- 
kind in general, including the greater portion of the brethren 
themselves, have remained in utter ignorance in regard to its 
establishment and original intention. Various speculations 
therefore continue to be made respecting the origin of the 
society, and its views at the time of its formation ; and Mr. 
Paine, among the rest, with all his sagacity, has suffered him- 
self to be most egregiously deceived by such writings of the 
masons as had fallen into his hands. These writers, in giving 
an account of the society, take up the history of architecture 
as far back as any record of it has survived the wreck of 
time. Wherever they can trace in history, whether true or 
fabulous, any account of noble and grand structures, they pre- 
sumptuously pronounce them to have been raised by their so- 
ciety. The pyramids of Egypt, the tower of Babel, whose ex- 

(215) 



216 PREFACE. 

istence is doubted, and Solomon's temple, about which there 
has probably been much lying, are all claimed by them. For 
what is this ridiculous parade, but to make the uninitiated, as 
well as their own members, few of whom know anything about 
it, wonder at the astonishing antiquity of the institution ■? 
Would not the advice of Pop£ apply in this case ? 

" Go ! and pretend your family is young, 
Nor own your fathers have been fools so long." 

If the antiquity of a sect or society proved its utility, or 
that it was founded in correct principles, the religion taught 
by the ancient Egyptian priests, or Judaism, ought to be pre- 
ferred to Christianity. 

There is no possible use to be derived from deception upon 
this subject. The masonic society is undoubtedly very an- 
cient; having commenced, in the city of York, in England, in 
the early part of the tenth century of the Christian era j and 
from thence it spread into other parts of Europe. It was 
formed by men who had some knowledge of rude architecture, 
such as it was at that day, and working masons ; and had no 
other view than improvement in the art or craft of masonry ; 
which their writers dignify with the title of royal craft, be- 
cause some of their Kings have condescended to become mem- 
bers of the society, for the purpose, no doubt, of nattering 
their subjects to persevere in improvements in the art of 
building ; which was useful to them, as they always stand in 
need of palaces, castles, and churches. The society is com- 
posed of free men, none others are admitted, hence the term, 
free masons. At first there were but three degrees, appren- 
tice, fellow-craft, that is, one who had served an apprentice- 
ship, and was entitled to wages as a journeyman; and master- 
mason. The latter degree entitled its possessor to contract 
for building on his own account. It was not until the begin 
ning of the eighteenth century, that any one, according to the 
regulations of the society, could be admitted a member, who 
did not labour at the trade of masonry, or knew something 
of architecture; although, perhaps, through favour, some 
were smuggled in who had very little or no knowledge of 
that art.* 

* The author of this Preface, although he has thrown considerable 
light upon the subject, has been himself deceived by masonic writers 



PREFACE. 217 

As to the mysteries of the craft, so much talked of, they 
are of the same nature as those of carpentry, or any other 
trade; and consist in a knowledge of the art of masonry; 
which was thought much more of at the time the society was 
instituted, than at the present day. The trifling rites and 
ceremonies, which the masons borrowed from the ancient 
Druids, are mere allegories, and symbolical signs and words, 
serving as a medium of secrecy, by means of which the mem- 
bers of the society are enabled to recognise each other. 

There is no more propriety in prefixing the term free to 
masonry, than there is to carpentry, smithery, or to any other 
trade. It is inapplicable to any art or trade ; although it may 
be applied to the professors of it. At the time the freema- 
sons' society was first instituted in England, there were in that 
kingdom both free men and slaves in all the mechanical trades 
then in use. Dr. Henry, in his history of Great Britain, 
giving an account of the different ranks of people, &c, from 
449 to 1066, after stating that slavery had been in some de- 
gree meliorated, observes, " But after all these mitigations of 
the severities of slavery, the yoke of servitude was, still very 
heavy, and the greater part of the labourers, mechanics, and 
common people, groaned under that yoke at the conclusion of 
this period. " Which was 140 years after the establishment 
of the masonic society. 

in respect to the origin of the existing society of Freemasons; which 
is entirely speculative, and was instituted at the time when, he says, 
persons not being masons by trade were first admitted as members, 
viz. in the early part of the eighteenth century. Late writers have 
shown, that the first Lodge ever established upon the existing specu- 
lative plan, was formed in London, in 1717 ; and that a similar society 
was formed in Scotland, in 1736. These two lodges soon began to 
quarrel about precedency ; each endeavouring to prove its priority by 
existing records of the humble mechanical societies of labouring 
masons, which had been established in both kingdoms many centuries 
before. The Yorkites, in England, it is believed, produced the oldest 
documents : both societies, however, continued to grant dispensations 
for forming lodges in foreign countries. 

From these two sources all the Freemason societies, upon the pre- 
sent establishment, owe their origin. Nothing of the kind ever ex- 
isted in Europe, or any other quarter of the world, previously to 1717. 
Although ostensibly founded upon a society of real working masons, 
nothing is now taught in it, nor ever has been, of that art, or any 
other art or science. — Ed. 
19 



218 I'REFACE. 

All the writers upon this subject, who are members of the 
society, endeavour to conceal the origin and object of it. For 
what reason it is difficult to imagine, except it be to keep the 
world in amazement respecting it. Or, perhaps-, their pride 
induces them to contemn the humble, though laudable and 
useful purposes for which the institution was formed. Enough 
however has appeared in the old records which they have pub- 
lished to establish the view I have taken of it, and which, when 
I commenced this preface, I intended to have inserted ; but 
finding they would extend to too great a length, I am under 
the necessity of omitting them. I will however make a few 
extracts from the old charges of the Free and Accepted Ma- 
sons, collected from their old records, at the command of the 
Grand Master, by James Anderson, D. D. Approved by the 
Grand Lodge, and ordered to be printed in the first edition of 
the book of constitutions, on March 25, 1722. 

" Concerning God and religion. A mason is obliged, by 
his tenure, to obey the moral law; and if he rightly under- 
stands the art, he will never be a stupid atheist, nor an irreli- 
gious libertine. But though in ancient times masons were 
charged in every country to be of the religion of that country 
or nation, whatever it was, yet it is now thought more expe- 
dient only to oblige them to that religion in which all men 
agree, leaving their particular opinions to themselves ; that is, 
to be good men and true, or men of honour and honesty, by 
whatever denominations or persuasions they may be distin- 
guished ; whereby masonry becomes the centre of union, and 
the means of conciliating true friendship among persons, that 
must have remained at a perpetual distance.* 

Of Lodges. A lodge is a place where masons assemble and 
work ; hence that assembly, or duly organized society of ma- 

* William Preston, past master of the lodge of antiquity, in Lis 
Illustrations of Masonry, makes the following remarks on the same 
subject. " The spirit of the fulminating priest will be tamed ; and 
a moral brother, though of a different persuasion, engage his esteem : 
for mutual toleration in religious opinions is one of the most dis- 
tinguishing and valuable characteristics of the craft. As all religions 
teach morality, if a brother be found to act the part of a truly honest 
man, his private speculative opinions are left to God and himself. 
Thus through the influence of masonry, which is reconcilable to the 
best policy, all those disputes which embitter life, and sour the tem- 
pers of men, are avoided." 



PREFACE. 219 

song, is called a lodge ; and every brother ought to belong to 
one. and to be subject to its By-laws, and the general regula- 
tions. 

The persons admitted members of a lodge, must be good and 
true men, free-born, and of mature and discreet age, no bond- 
men, no women, no immoral or scandalous men, but of good 
report. 

Of apprentices. Candidates may know that no master 
should take an apprentice, unless he has sufficient employment 
for him, and unless he be a perfect youth, having no maim or 
defect in his body, that may render him incapable of learning 
the art, of serving his master's lord, and of being made a bro- 
ther, and then a fellow-craft in due time, even after he has 
served such a term of years, as the custom of the country di- 
rects ; and that he should be descended of honest parents. 

Of the management of the craft in loorking. All Masons 
shall work honestly on working days, that they may live cre- 
ditably on holy days ; and the time appointed by the law of 
the land, or confirmed by custom, shall be observed. 

The most expert of the fellow-craftsmen shall be chosen or 
appointed the master or overseer of the Lord's work ; who is 
to be called master by those that work under him. The crafts- 
men are to avoid all ill-language, and to call each other by no 
disobliging name, but brother or fellow ; and to behave them- 
selves courteously within and without the lodge. 

The master, knowing himself to be able of cunning, shall 
undertake the Lord's work as reasonably as possible, and truly 
dispend his goods as if they were his own ; nor give more 
wages to any brother or apprentice than he really may deserve. 

Both the master and the masons receiving their wages justly, 
shall be faithful to the Lord, and honestly finish their work, 
whether task or journey \ nor put the work to task that hath 
been accustomed to journey. 

None shall discover envy at the prosperity of a brother, nor 
supplant him, or put him out of his work, if he be capable to 
finish the same ; for no man can finish another's work so much 
to the Lord's profit, unless he be thoroughly acquainted with 
the designs and draughts of him that began it. 

When a fellow-craftsman is chosen warden of the work un- 
der the master, he shall be true both to master and fellows, 



220 PREFACE. 

shall carefully oversee the work in the master's absence, to 
the Lord's profit ; and his brethren shall obey him. 

All masons employed shall meekly receive their wages with- 
out murmuring or mutiny, and not desert the master till the 
work is finished. 

A younger brother shall be instructed in working, to pre- 
vent spoiling the materials for want of judgment, and for in- 
creasing and continuing of brotherly love. 

All the tools used in working shall be approved by the Grand 
Lodge. 

No labourer shall be employed in the proper work of ma- 
sonry; nor shall Freemasons work with those that are not 
free, without an urgent necessity y nor shall they teach labour- 
ers and unaccepted masons as they should teach a brother or 
fellow. 

Of behaviour in the Lodge while constituted. If any com- 
plaint be brought, the brother found guilty shall stand to the 
award and determination of the lodge, who are the proper and 
competent judges of all such controversies (unless you carry 
it by appeal to the Grand Lodge), and to whom they ought to 
be referred, unless a lord's work be hindered the mean while, 
in which case a particular reference may be made ; but you 
must never go to law about what concerneth masonry without 
an absolute necessity apparent to the lodge. 

Behaviour in presence of strangers not masons. You shall 
be cautious in your words and carriage, that the most pene- 
trating stranger shall not be able to discover or find out what 
is not proper to be intimated ; and sometimes you shall divert 
a discourse, and manage it prudently for the honour of the 
worshipful fraternity. 

Behaviour at home, and in your neighbourhood. You are 
to act as becomes a moral and wise man ; particularly not to 
let your family, friends, and neighbours know the concerns of 
the lodge, &c, but wisely to consult your own honour, and 
that of the ancient brotherhood. You must also consult your 
health, by not continuing together too late, or too long from 
home, after lodge hours are past; and by avoiding of glut- 
tony and drunkenness, that your families be not neglected or 
injured, nor you disabled from working. 

Behaviour towards a strange brother. You are cautiously 
to examine him, in such a method as prudence shall direct 



PREFACE. 221 

you, that you may not be imposed upon by an ignorant false 
pretender, whom you are to reject with contempt and derision, 
and beware of giving him any hints of knowledge. 

But if you discover him to be a true and genuine brother, 
you are to respect him accordingly; and if he is in want, you 
must relieve him if you can, or else direct him how he may 
be relieved ; you must employ him some days, or else recom- 
mend him to be, employed. But you are not charged to do 
beyond your ability, only to prefer a poor brother that is a 
good man and true, before any other poor people in the same 
circumstances." 

All the old charges have a reference to Freemasons in the 
capacity of labourers, and as u good men and true," and no 
doubt had a beneficial effect. But the substance has been lost 
sight of, and the skeleton, or shadow, only retained. The 
mummery of the Druidical priests, with infinite additions of the 
same cast, is cherished as the desideratum of knowledge, cal- 
culated to complete the sum of human happiness and perfec- 
tion. The corruptions of the society seem to have kept pace 
with those of the Christian religion. It is at this day as dif- 
ferent to what it was, as the Christianity now professed is to 
the religion taught by Jesus Christ. In his time there were 
no Doctors of Divinity — Right Reverend Fathers in God, nor 
their Holinesses the Popes. Neither were there in the Society 
of Freemasons, at its commencement, any Grand Secretaries 
— Grand Treasurers — Knights of Malta — Captain-Generals — 
Generalissimos — Most Excellent Scribes — Most Excellent 
High-Priests — Most Excellent Kings, &c, &c* To which 
might now, perhaps, very appropriately be added, Grand 
Bottle-holder and Cork-drawer. 

The admission into the society of kings, princes, noblemen, 
bishops, and doctors in divinity, as patrons of the institution, 
has probably been the cause of so great change. These men, 
it may be presumed, brought much of their consequence with 
them into the lodge, and were, no doubt, addressed in a man- 
ner suitable to their supposed dignity in other stations. At 
any rate, by whatever means these high-sounding titles may 
have been introduced, they appear ridiculous when applied to 

* This is true, if reference be made to what it teas, when under the 
management of the real masons, the operatives previously to the year 
1717. 

19* 



222 PREFACE. 

members of an institution founded for such purpose as that 
of the Masonic Society, and ought to be abandoned. 

It is difficult, at this time, for members of the Society, or 
anybody else, to say -what benefit is to be derived from the 
magical arts pretended to be practised in the lodges. The 
mystic rites and ceremonies of the Egyptian priests, handed 
down to the Druids by Pythagoras; the miraculous stories re- 
lated of the ancient Jews ■ and the legendary tales of Boman 
Catholic superstition, fruitful sources of imposition, have been 
ransacked to find subjects for new degrees to be tacked to the 
Society of Freemasons. I have in my possession a list of 
forty-three degrees in what is called Freemasonry ; one of 
which is the order of the Holy Ghost. 

If, as here represented, all this mystical nonsense has been 
obtruded into the society, it may be asked, Why do men of 
sense attach themselves to it ? I answer, many retire from it 
after taking two or three degrees ; some have political or other 
sinister views which retain them • and, furthermore, most men 
are fond of distinction in some way. Any man of common 
understanding, by being punctual at the meetings, and paying 
strict attention to the ceremonies, may become warden, that is, 
overseer, or some other grand officer, even that of Most Wor- 
shipful Grand Master ; and in the mean time keep mounting 
up the ladder, from mystery to mystery, till he arrives at the 
forty-third degree of perfection : which, however, in my opi- 
nion, cannot be of the least possible advantage to him here or 
hereafter, any further than the consequence it may give him. 
As to those who serve in the ranks, they probably consider 
themselves sufficiently honoured by being held as Brothers 
by those whom they think their superiors, and permitted to 
parade the streets with ribbons and white aprons, to the amaze- 
ment of ifae'profane vulgar. 

Notwithstanding the remarks I have made, I am by no 
means inimical to the Masonic Society : for 1 believe it to be 
a liberal, social institution, in which persons of the most op- 
posite opinions on religious and political subjects associate in 
the utmost harmony. By these friendly meetings, it is to be 
presumed, that party spirit, both in politics and religion, loses 
much of its asperity among the members; and that those, 
who otherwise might have entertained hostile feelings towards 
each other, become friends. In this point of view, the Society 



PREFACE. 223 

deserves to be held in the highest estimation. For however 
laudable zeal may be in a just cause, when carried to excess, 
so as to excite personal ill-will towards others of contrary 
opinions, it degenerates into its kindred vice, leading to hatred 
and persecution. No good reason can be given why men of 
the same or similar societies should entertain greater partiality 
for one another, than for others of their fellow-men, any 
further than their merits when known may deserve ; and to 
this it is generally limited among men of sense; still, in con- 
sequence of the obligations by which Masons are bound to 
each other, and a sort of bigotry in many, this partiality has 
had its good effects in mitigating the evils of war ; and, for 
men who travel, a diploma from a Lodge has passed as a letter 
of recommendation in foreign countries. 

Asa charitable institution, the Masonic Society ought to be 
held in high consideration. The relief it grants to its mem- 
bers and their families in distress, is very considerable. But, 
unfortunately, as I am told, its means are very much exhausted 
by expenses incurred for refreshments at the regular meetings. 
If each member were required to pay for what he consumes 
at those meetings, the Society, in consequence of its numbers, 
by its_ income arising from annual contributions, fees of initi- 
ation, &c\, Would be enabled to do more in charity, perhaps, 
than any private society in existence. 

As to what Mr. Paine has said upon this abstruse subject, 
I take the liberty of observing, that, in my opinion, notwith- 
standing the talents he has bestowed upon it, and the interest 
he has given to it, his remarks, made doubtless in the utmost 
sincerity, are calculated to perplex and embarrass readers not 
conversant in these matters, as much as those of any other 
author, whose design was to involve it in unintelligible mys- 
tery. 

" In thoughts more elevate, he reasoned high, 
But found no end, in wandering mazes lost." 



ORIGIN OP FREE-MASONRY. 



It is always understood that Free-Masons have a secret 
which they carefully conceal; but from everything that can 
he collected from their own accounts of Masonry, their real 
secret is no other than their origin, which but few of them 
understand ; and those who do, envelope it in mystery. 

The Society of Masons are distinguished into three classes 
or degrees. 1st. The Entered Apprentice. 2d. The Fellow 
Craft. 3d. The Master Mason. 

The entered apprentice knows but little more of Masonry, 
than the use of signs and tokens, and certain steps and words, 
"by which Masons can recognise each other, without being dis- 
covered by a person who is not a Mason. The fellow craft is 
not much better instructed in Masonry, than the entered 
apprentice. It is only in the Master Mason's lodge, that 
whatever knowledge remains of the origin of Masonry is pre- 
served and concealed. 

In 1730, Samuel Pritchard, member of a constituted lodge 
in England, published a treatise, entitled Masonry Dissected ; 
and made oath before the Lord Mayor of London, that it 
was a true copy. 

" Samuel Pritchard maketh oath that the copy hereunto 
annexed is a true and genuine copy in every particular." 

In his work he has given the catechism, or examination, in 
question and answer, of the apprentices, the fellow craft, and 
the Master Mason. There was no difficulty in doing this, as 
it is mere form. 

In his introduction he says, " the original institution of 
Masonry consisted in the foundation of the liberal arts and 
sciences, but more especially in Geometry, for at the building 
of the Tower of Babel, the art and mystery of Masonry was 
first introduced, and from thence handed down by Euclid, a 
worthy and excellent mathematician of the Egyptians; and he 
communicated it to Hiram, the Master Mason concerned in 
building Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem." 

(224) 



ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 225 

Besides the absurdity of deriving Masonry from the build- 
ing of Babel, where, according to the story, the confusion of 
languages prevented the builders understanding each other, 
and consequently of communicating any knowledge they had 
there, is a glaring contradiction in point of chronology in the 
account he gives. 

Solomon's Temple was built and dedicated 1004 years 
before the Christian era ; and Euclid, as may be seen in the 
tables of chronology, lived 277 years before the same era. It 
was therefore impossible that Euclid could communicate any- 
thing to Hiram, since Euclid did not live till 700 years after 
the time of Hiram. 

In 1783, Captain George Smith, inspector of the Royal 
Artillery Academy at Woolwich, in England, and Provincial 
Grand Master of Masonry for the county of Kent, published a 
treatise entitled, The Use and Abuse of Free-Masonry. 

In his chapter of the antiquity of Masonry, he makes it to 
be coeval with creation. "When," says he, "the sovereign 
architect raised on Masonic principles the beauteous globe, 
and commanded that master science Geometry, to lay the 
planetary world, and to regulate by its laws the whole stupen- 
dous system in just unerring proportion, rolling round the 
central sun." 

" But," continues he, " I am not at liberty publicly to un- 
draw the curtain, and thereby to descant on this head; it is 
sacred, and will ever remain so ; those who are honoured with 
the trust will not reveal it, and those who are ignorant of it 
cannot betray it." By this last part of the phrase, Smith 
means the two inferior classes, the fellow craft and the entered 
apprentice, for he says, in the next page of his work, " It is 
not every one that is Rarely initiated into Free-Masonry that 
is intrusted with all the mysteries thereto belonging; they are 
not attainable as things of course, nor by every capacity." 

The learned, but unfortunate Doctor Dodd, Grand Chaplain 
of Masonry, in his oration at the dedication of Free-Mason's 
Hall, London, traces Masonry through a variety of stages. 
Masons, says he, are well informed from their own private and 
interior records, that the building of Solomon's Temple is an 
important era, from whence they derive many mysteries of 
their art. "Now (says he), be it remembered that this great 
event took place above 1000 years before the Christian era, 

vol. i. — 15 



226 ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 

and consequently more than a century before Homer, the first 
of the Grecian Poets, wrote ; and above five centuries before 
Pythagoras brought from the east his sublime system of truly 
masonic instruction to illuminate our western world. 

"But remote as this period is, we date not from thence the 
commencement of our art. For though it might owe to the 
wise and glorious King of Israel, some of its many mystic 
forms and hieroglyphic ceremonies, yet certainly, the art itself 
is coeval with man, the great subject of it. 

" We trace/' continues he, " its footsteps in the most dis- 
tant, the most remote ages and nations of the world. We 
find it amongst the first and most celebrated civilizers of the 
East. We deduce it regularly from the first astronomers on 
the plains of Chaldea, to the wise and mystic kings and priests 
of Egypt, the sages of Greece, and the philosophers of Rome." 

From these reports and declarations of Masons of the high- 
est order in the institution, we see that Masonry, without pub- 
licly declaring so, lays claim to some divine communication 
from the Creator, in a manner different from, and unconnected 
with, the book which the Christians call the Bible ; and the 
natural result from this is, that Masonry is derived from some 
very ancient religion, wholly independent of, and unconnected 
with that book. 

To come then at once to the point, Masonry (as I shall 
show from the customs, ceremonies, hieroglyphics, and chro- 
nology of Masonry) is derived, and is the remains of the re- 
ligion of the ancient Druids; who, like the magi of Persia 
and the priests of Heliopolis in Egypt, were priests of the 
Sun. They paid worship to this great luminary, as the great 
visible agent of a great invisible first cause, whom they styled, 
Time without limits. 

The Christian religion and Masonry have one and the same 
common origin, both are derived from the worship of the sun ', 
the difference between their origin is, that the Christian re- 
ligion is a parody on the worship of the sun, in which they 
put a man whom they call Christ, in the place of the sun, and 
pay him the same adoration which was originally paid to the 
sun, as I have shown in the chapter on the origin of the 
Christian religion.* 

* Referring to an unpublished portion of this work of which this 
chapter forms a part. 



ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 227 

In Masonry many of the ceremonies of the Druids are pre- 
served in their original state, at least without any parody. 
With them the sun is still the sun; and his image in the form 
of the sun, is the great emblematical ornament of Masonic 
Lodges and Masonic dresses. It is the central figure on their 
aprons, and they wear it also pendant on the breast in their 
lodges and in their processions. It has the figure of a man, 
as at the head of the sun, as Christ is always represented. 

At what period of antiquity, or in what nation, this religion 
was first established, is lost in the labyrinth of unrecorded 
times. It is generally ascribed to the ancient Egyptians, the 
Babylonians and Chaldeans, and reduced afterwards to a 
system regulated by the apparent progress of the sun through 
the twelve signs of the Zodiac by Zoroaster the lawgiver of 
Persia, from whence Pythagoras brought it into Greece. It 
is to these matters Dr. Dodd refers in the passage already 
quoted from his oration. 

The worship of the sun, as the great visible agent of a great 
invisible first cause, time without limits, spread itself over a 
considerable part of Asia and Africa, from thence to Greece 
and Rome, through all ancient Graul, and into Britain and Ire- 
land. 

Smith, in his chapter on the antiquity of Masonry in 
Britain, says, that " notwithstanding the obscurity which en- 
velopes masonic history in that country, various circumstances 
contribute to prove that Free-Masonry was introduced into 
Britain about 1030 years before Christ." 

It cannot be Masonry in its present state that Smith here 
alludes to. The Druids flourished in Britain at the period he 
speaks of, and it is from them that Masonry is descended. 
Smith has put the child in the place of the parent. 

It sometimes happens, as well in writing as in conversation, 
that a person lets slip an expression that serves to unravel 
what he intends to conceal, and this is the case with Smith, 
for in the same chapter he says, " The Druids, when they com- 
mitted anything to writing, used the Greek alphabet, and I am 
bold to assert that the most perfect remains of the Druid's 
rites and ceremonies are preserved in the customs and cere- 
monies of the Masons that are to be found existing among 
mankind. "My brethren," says he, "maybe able to trace 



228 ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 

them with greater exactness than I am at liberty to explain 
to the public." 

This is a confession from a Master Mason, without intend- 
ing it to be so understood by the public, that Masonry is the 
remains of the religion of the Druids; the reasons for the 
Masons keeping this a secret I shall explain in the course of 
this work. 

As the study and contemplation of the Creator in the works 
of the creation, of which the sun, as the great visible agent 
of that Being, was the visible object of the adoration of 
Druids, all their religious rites and ceremonies had reference 
to the apparent progress of the sun through the twelve signs 
of the Zodiac, and his influence upon the earth. The Masons 
adopt the same practices. The roof of their temples or 
lodges is ornamented with a sun, and the floor is a representa- 
tion of the variegated face of the earth, either by carpeting or 
by Mosaic work. 

Free-Masons' Hall, in Great Queen street, Lincoln's Inn 
Fields, London, is a magnificent building, and cost upwards 
of 12,000 pounds sterling. Smith, in speaking of this build' 
ing, says, (page 152), " The roof of this magnificent hall is, 
in all probability, the highest piece of finished architecture in 
Europe. In the centre of this roof, a most resplendent sun is 
represented in burnished gold, surrounded with the twelve 
signs of the Zodiac, with their respective characters : 

qp Arie3 pi Libra 

8 Taurus Til Scorpio 

n G-emini $ Sagittarius 

23 Cancer v> Capricornus 

fl Leo — Aquarius 

tie Virgo X Pisces 

After giving this description, he says, " The emblematical 
meaning of the sun is well known to the enlightened and in- 
quisitive Free-Mason : and as the real sun is situated in the 
centre of the universe, so the emblematical sun is the centre 
of real Masonry. We all know, continues he, that the sun is 
the fountain of light, the source of the seasons, the cause of 
the vicissitudes of day and night, the parent of vegetation, 
the friend of man ; hence the scientific Free-Mason only 
knows the reason why the sun is placed in the centre of this 
beautiful hall." 



ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 229 

The Masons, in order to protect themselves from the perse- 
cution of the Christian church, have always spoken in a mys- 
tical manner of the figure of the sun in their lodges, or like 
the astronomer Lalande, who is a mason, been silent upon the 
subject. It is their secret, especially in Catholic countries, 
because the figure of the sun is the expressive criterion that 
denotes they are descended from the Druids, and that wise, 
elegant, philosophical religion, was the faith opposite to the 
faith of the gloomy Christian church. 

The lodges of the Masons, if built for the purpose, are con- 
structed in a manner to correspond with the apparent motion 
of the sun. They are situated East and West. The master's 
place is always in the East. In the examination of an entered 
apprentice, the master, among many other questions, asks him, 

Q. How is the lodge situated ? 

A. East and West. 

Q. Why so? 

A. Because all churches and chapels are, or ought to be so. 

This answer, which is mere catechismal form, is not an 
answer to the question. It does no more than remove the 
question a point further, which is, why ought all churches 
and chapels to be so ? But as the entered apprentice is not 
initiated into the Druidical mysteries of Masonry, he is not 
asked any questions to which a direct answer would lead 
thereto. 

Q. Where stands your master ? 

A. In the East. 

Q. Why so ? 

A. As the sun rises in the East, and opens the day, so the 
master stands in the East (with his right hand upon his left 
breast, being a sign, and the square about his neck), to open 
the lodge, and set his men at work. 

Q. Where stand your wardens ? 

A. In the West. 

Q. What is their business? 

A. As the sun sets in the West to close the day, so thi 
wardens stand in the West (with their right hands upon theii 
left breasts, being a sign, and the level and plumb rule about 
their necks), to close the lodge, and dismiss the men from 
labour, paying them their wages. 

Here the name of the sun is mentioned, but it is proper to 
20 



230 ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 

observe, that in this place it has reference only to labour or to 
the time of labour, and not to any religious Druidical rite or 
ceremony, as it would have with respect to the situation of 
lodges East and West. I have already observed in the chap- 
ter on the origin of the Christian religion, that the situation 
of churches East and West is taken from the worship of the 
sun, which rises in the East, and has not the least reference 
to the person called Jesus Christ. The Christians never bury 
their dead on the North side of a church j* and a Mason's 
Lodge always has, or is supposed to have, three windows, 
which are called fixed lights, to distinguish them from the 
movable lights of the sun and the moon. The master asks 
the entered apprentice, 

Q. How are they (the fixed lights) situated ? 

A. East, West, and South. 

Q. What are their uses ? 

A. To light the men to and from their work. 

* This may have been the case formerly, but I believe, at present, 
very little- attention is paid to the position of burying grounds, in 
respect to churches. In regard to " the situation of churches East 
and West," I find the rule was observed as late as the time of building 
St. Paul's Cathedral, which was finished in 1697. William Preston, 
in giving a description of this edifice, in his Illustrations of Masonry, 
says, "A strict regard to the situation of this Cathedral, due East 
and West, has given it an oblique appearance with respect to Ludgate- 
street in front; so that the great front gate in the surrounding iron 
rails, being made to regard the street in front, rather than the Church 
to which it belongs, the statue of queen Ann, that is exactly in the 
middle of the west front, is thrown on one side the straight approach 
from the gate to the Church, and gives an idea of the whole edifice 
being awry." In 1707, Sir Christopher Wren, the Architect of St. 
Paul's Cathedral, in a letter addressed to a joint commissioner with 
himself for building fifty churches in addition to others already built, 
to supply the place of those destroyed by the conflagration of 1666, 
observes, " I could wish that all the burials in Churches should be 
disallowed, which is not only unwholesome, but the pavements can 
never be kept even, nor pews upright ; and if the Church-yard is close 
about the church, this also is inconvenient. It will be inquired, 
where then shall be the burials? I answer, in cemeteries seated in the 
out-skirts of the town. As to the situation of the Churches, I should 
propose they be brought as forward as possible into the larger and 
more open streets. Nor are we, I think, too nicely to observe East 
and West in the position, unless it falls out properly." See Ander- 
son's Book of Constitutions of the Free-Masons. — Editor. 



ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 231 

Q. Why are there no lights in the North ? 

A. Because the sun darts no rays from thence. 

This, among numerous other instances, shows that the 
Christian religion, and Masonry, have one and the same com- 
mon origin, the ancient worship of the sun. 

The high festival of the Masons is on the day they call St. 
John's day; but every enlightened Mason must know that 
holding their festival on this day has no reference to the per- 
son called St. John ; and that it is only to disguise the true 
cause of holding it on this day, that they call the day by that 
name. As there were Masons, or at least Druids, many cen- 
turies before the time of St. John, if such person ever existed, 
the holding their festival on this day must refer to some cause 
totally unconnected with John. 

The case is, that the day called St. John's day is the 24th 
of June, and is what is called Midsummer-day. The sun is 
then arrived at the summer solstice; and with respect to his 
meridional altitude, or height at high noon, appears for some 
days to be of the same height. The astronomical longest day, 
like the shortest day, is not every year, on account of leap- 
year, on the same numerical day, and therefore the 24th of 
June is always taken for Midsummer-day; and it is in honour 
of the sun, which has then arrived at his greatest height, in 
our hemisphere, and not anything with respect to St. John, that 
this annual festival of the Masons, taken from the Druids, is 
celebrated on Midsummer-day. 

Customs will often outlive the remembrance of their origin, 
and this is the case with respect to a custom still practised in 
Ireland, where the Druids nourished at the time they flourished 
in Britain. On the eve of St. John's day, that is, on the eve 
of Midsummer-day, the Irish light lires on the tops of the 
hills. This can have no reference to St. John ; but it has 
emblemalical reference to the sun, which on that day is at his 
highest summer elevation, and might in common language be 
said to have arrived at the top of the hill. 

As to what Masons and books of Masonry tell us of Solo- 
mon's Temple at Jerusalem, it is nowise improbable that some 
masonic ceremonies may have been derived from the building 
of that temple, for the worship of the sun was in practice many 
centuries before the temple existed, or before the Israelites 
came out of Egypt. And we learn from the history of the 



232 ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 

Jewish Kings, 2 Kings, chap. xxii. xxiii., that the worship 
of the sun was performed by the Jews in that temple. It is, 
however, much to be doubted, if it was done with the same 
scientific purity and religious morality, with which it was' per- 
formed by the Druids, who, by all accounts that historically 
remain of them, were a wise, learned, and moral class of men. 
The Jews, on the contrary, were ignorant of astronomy, and 
of science in general, and if a religion founded upon astronomy 
fell into their hands, it is almost certain it would be corrupted. 
We do not read in the history of the Jews, whether in the 
Bible or elsewhere, that they were the inventors or the im- 
provers of any one art or science. Even in the building of 
this temple, the Jews did not know how to square and frame 
the timber for beginning and carrying on the work, and Solo- 
mon was obliged to send to Hiram, king of Tyre (Zidon), to 
procure workmen; u for thou knowest (says Solomon to Hiram, 
1 Kings, chap. v. ver. 6), that there is not among us any that 
can skill to hew timber like unto the Zidonians." This temple 
was more properly Hiram's temple than Solomon's, and if the 
Masons derive anything from the building of it, they owe it to 
the Zidonians and not to the Jews. — But to return to the wor- 
ship of the sun in this temple. 

It is said, 2 Kings, chap, xxiii. ver. 8, "And King Josiah 
put down all the idolatrous priests that burned incense unto 
the sun, the moon, the planets, and all the host of heaven." — 
And it is said at the 11th ver. "and he took away the horses 
that the kings of Judah had given to the sun, at the entering 
in of the house of the Lord, and burned the chariots of the 
sun with fire, ver. 13, and the high places that were before 
Jerusalem, which were on the right hand of the mount of cor- 
ruption, which Solomon the King of Israel had builded for 
Astoreth, the abomination of the Zidonians (the very people 
that built the temple) did the king defile." 

Besides these things, the description that Josephus gives of 
the decorations of this temple, resembles on a large scale those 
of a Mason's lodge. He says that the distribution of the seve- 
ral parts of the temple of the Jews represented all nature, par- 
ticularly the parts most apparent of it, as the sun, the moon, 
the planets, the zodiac, the earth, the elements; and that the 
system of the world was retraced there by numerous ingenious 
emblems. These, in all probability, are what Josiah, in his 



ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 233 

ignorance, calls the abominations of the Zidonians.* Every- 
thing, however, drawn from this temple, "j" and applied to 
Masonry, still refers to the worship of the sun, however cor- 
rupted or misunderstood by the Jews, and, consequently, to 
the religion of the Druids. 

Another circumstance which shows that Masonry is derived 
from some ancient system, prior to, and unconnected with, the 
Christian religion, is the chronology, or method of counting 
time, used by the Masons in the records of their lodges. They 
make no use of what is called the Christian era ; and they 
reckon their months numerically, as the ancient Egyptians 
did, and as the Quakers do now. I have by me, a record of a 
French lodge, at the time the late Duke of Orleans, then Duke 
de Chartres, was Grand Master of Masonry in France. It 
begins as follows: " Le trentieme jour du sixieme mors de 
Van de la V. L. cinq mil sept cent soixante trots ;" that is, 
the thirteenth day of the sixth month of the year of the vene- 
rable lodge, five thousand seven hundred and seventy-three. 
By what I observe in English books of Masonry, the English 
Masons use the initials A. L. and not V. L. By A. L. they 
mean in the year of the lodge,! as the Christians by A. D. 
mean in the year of our Lord. But A. L. like V. L. refers 
to the same chronological era, that is, to the supposed time of 

* Smith, in speaking of a Lodge, says, when the Lodge is revealed 
to an entering Mason, it discovers to him a representation of the world ; 
in which, from the wonders of nature, we are led to contemplate her 
great Original, and worship him from his mighty works ; and we are 
thereby also moved to exercise those moral and social virtues which 
become mankind as the servants of the great Architect of the world. 

f It may not be improper here to observe, that the law called the 
law of Moses could not have been in existence at the time of building 
this temple. Here is the likeness of things in heaven above, and in the 
earth beneath. And we read in 1 Kings, chap. 6, 7, that Solomon 
made cherubs and cherubims, that he carved all the walls of the house 
round about with cherubims and palm-trees, and open flowers, and 
that he made a molten sea, placed on twelve oxen, and the ledges of 
it were ornamented with lions, oxen, and cherubims ; all this is con- 
trary to the law, called the law of Moses. 

J V. L. used by French Masons, are the initials of Vraie Lu- 
miere, true light; and A. L., used by the English, are the initials of 
Anno Lucis, in the year of light. But as in both cases, as Mr. Paine 
observes, reference is had to the supposed time of the creation, his 
mistake is of no consequence. — Editor 

20* 



234 ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 

the creation. In the chapter on the origin of the Christian 
religion, I have shown that the cosmogony, that is, the account 
of the creation, with which the book of Genesis opens, has been 
taken and been mutilated from the Zend-Avesta of Zoroaster, 
and is fixed as a preface to the Bible, after the Jews returned 
from captivity in Babylon, and that the rabbins of the Jews 
do not hold their account in Genesis to be a fact, but mere 
allegory. The six thousand years in the Zend-Avesta, is 
changed or interpolated into six days in the accouut of Gene- 
sis. The Masons appear to have chosen the same period, and 
perhaps to avoid the suspicion and prosecution of the church, 
have adopted the era of the world, as the era of Masonry. 
The V. L. of the French, and A. L. of the English Masons 
answer to the A. M. Anno Mundi, or year of the world. 

Though the Masons have taken many of their ceremonies 
and hieroglyphics from the ancient Egyptians, it is certain 
they have not taken their chronology from thence. If they 
had, the church would soon have sent them to the stake; 
as the chronology of the Egyptians, like that of the Chinese, 
goes many thousand years beyond the Bible chronology. 

The religion of the Druids, as before said, was the same as 
the religion of the ancient Egyptians. The priests of Egypt 
were the professors and teachers of science, and were styled 
priests of Heliopolis, that is, of the city of the sun. The 
Druids in Europe, who were the same order of men, have their 
name from the Teutonic or ancient German language ; the 
Germans being anciently called Teutones. The word Druid 
signifies a wise man. In Persia they were called magi, which 
signifies the same thing. 

"Egypt," says Smith, " from whence we derive many of 
our mysteries, has always borne a distinguished rank in his- 
tory, and was once celebrated above all others for its antiqui- 
ties, learning, opulence, and fertility. In their system, their 
principal hero-gods, Osiris and Isis, theologically represented 
the Supreme Being and universal nature ; and physically, the 
two great celestial luminaries, the sun and the moon, by whose 
influence all nature was actuated. The experienced brethren 
of the Society fisays Smith in a note to this passage) are well 
informed what affinity these symbols bear to Masonry, and 
why they are used in all Masonic Lodges." 

In speaking of the apparel of the Masons in their Lodges, 



ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 235 

part of which, as we see in their public processions, is a white 
leather apron, he says, " the Druids were apparelled in white 
at the time of their sacrifices and solemn offices. The Egyp- 
tian priests of Osiris wore snow-white cotton. The Grecian 
and most other priests wore white garments. As Masons we 
regard the principles of those who were the first worshippers 
of the true God, imitate their apparel, and assume the badge 
of innocence. 

"The Egyptians/' continues Smith, "in the earliest ages, 
constituted a great number of Lodges, but with assiduous care 
kept their secrets of Masonry from all strangers. These 
secrets have been imperfectly handed down to us by tradition 
only, and ought to be kept undiscovered to the labourers, 
craftsmen, and apprentices, till by good behaviour and long 
study, they become better acquainted in geometry and the 
liberal arts, and thereby qualified for Masters and Wardens, 
which is seldom or ever the case with English Masons." 

Under the head of Free-Masonry, written by the astronomer 
Lalande, in the French Encyclopedia, I expected from his 
great knowledge in astronomy, to have found much information 
on the origin of Masonry; for what connexion can there be 
between any institution and the sun and twelve signs of the 
zodiac, if there be not something in that institution or in its 
origin, that has reference to astronomy ? Everything used as 
an hieroglyphic, has reference to the subject and purpose for 
which it is used ; and we are not to suppose the Free-Masons, 
among whom are many very learned and scientific men, to be 
such idiots as to make use of astronomical signs without some 
astronomical purpose. 

But I was much disappointed in my expectation from La- 
lande. In speaking of the origin of Masonry, he says, 
11 L'origine de la maconnerie se perd, comme tant d'autres, 
dans Vobscurite des temps;" that is, the origin of Masonry, 
like many others, loses itself in the obscurity of time. When 
I came to this expression, I supposed Lalande a Mason, and 
on inquiry found he was. This passing over saved him from 
the embarrassment which Masons are under respecting the 
disclosure of their origin, and which they are sworn to conceal. 
There is a society of Masons in Dublin who take the name of 
Druids ; these Masons must be supposed to have a reason for 
taking that name. 



236 ORIGIN OF FREEMASONRY. 

I come now to speak of the cause of secrecy used by the 
Masons. The natural source of secrecy is fear. When 
any new religion overruns a former religion, the professors 
of the new become the persecutors of the old. We see this in 
all the instances that history brings before us. When Hilkiah 
the priest and Shaphan the scribe, in the reign of king Josiah, 
found, or pretended to find the law, called the law of Moses, 
a thousand years after the time of Moses, and it does not ap- 
pear from the 2d book of Kings, chapters 22, 23, that such 
law was ever practised or known before the time of Josiah, he 
established that law as a national religion, and put all the 
priests of the sun to death. When the Christian religion over- 
ran the Jewish religion, the Jews were the continual subjects 
of persecution in all Christian countries. When the Protes- 
tant religion in England overran the Roman Catholic religion, 
it was made death for a Catholic priest to be found in Eng- 
land. As this has been the case in all the instances we have 
any knowledge of, we are obliged to admit it with respect to 
the case in question, and that when the Christian religion over- 
ran the religion of the Druids in Italy, ancient Gaul, Britain, 
and Ireland, the Druids became the subjects of persecution. 
This would naturally and necessarily oblige such of them as 
remained attached to their original religion to meet in secret, 
and under the strongest injunctions of secrecy. Their safety 
depended upon it. A false brother might expose the lives 
of many of them to destruction • and from the remains of the 
religion of the Druids, thus preserved, arose the institution, 
which, to avoid the name of Druid, took that of Mason, and 
practised, under this new name, the rights and ceremonies of 
Druids. 



LETTER 

TO 

SAMUEL ADAMS. 



My dear and venerable friend : 

I received with great pleasure your friendly and affec- 
tionate letter of Nov. 30th, and I thank you also for the frank- 
ness of it. Between men in pursuit of truth, and whose object 
is the happiness of man both here and hereafter, there ought 
to be no reserve. . Even error has a claim to indulgence, if 
not to respect, when it is believed to be truth. I am obliged 
to you for your affectionate remembrance of what you style 
my services in awakening the public mind to a declaration of 
independence, and supporting it after it was declared. I also, 
like you, have often looked back on those times, and have 
thought, that if independence had not been declared at the 
time it was, the public mind could not have been brought up 
to it afterwards. It will immediately occur to you, who were 
so intimately acquainted with the situation of things at that 
time, that I allude to the black times of seventy-six ; for 
though I know, and you, my friend, also know, they were no 
other than the natural consequences of the military blunders 
of that campaign, the country might have viewed them as 
proceeding from a natural inability to support its cause against 
the enemy, and have sunk under the despondency of that mis- 
conceived idea. This was the impression against which it was 
necessary the country should be strongly animated. 

I now come to the second part of your letter, on which I 
shall be as frank with you as you are with me. ", But (say 
you) when I heard you had turned your mind to a defence of 
infidelity, I felt myself much astonished/' &c. What, my 
good friend ! do you call believing in God infidelity? for that 
is the great point mentioned in the Age of Reason against all 
divided beliefs and allegorical divinities. The Bishop of 

(237) 



238 LETTER TO 

Llandaff (Dr. Watson) not only acknowledges this, but pays 
me some compliments upon it, in his answer to the second 
part of that work. " There is (says he) a philosophical sub-, 
limity in some of your ideas, when speaking of the Creator 
of the Universe." 

What, then (my much esteemed friend, for I do not respect 
you the less because we differ, and that perhaps not much, in 
religious sentiments), what, I ask, is the thing called infide- 
lity f If we go back to your ancestors and mine, three or four 
hundred years ago, — for we must have fathers and grandfa- 
thers, or we should not have been here, — we shall find them 
praying to saints and virgins, and believing in purgatory and 
transubstantiation j and therefore all of us are infidels, accord- 
ing to our forefathers' belief. If we go back to times more 
ancient we shall again be infidels, according to the belief of 
some other forefathers. 

The case, my friend, is, that the world has been overrun 
with fable and creed of human invention, with sectaries of 
whole nations against other nations, and sectaries of those sec- 
taries in each of them against each other. Every sectary, 
except the Quakers, have been persecutors. Those who fled 
from persecution, persecuted in their turn ; and it is this con- 
fusion of creeds that has filled the world with persecution, and 
deluged it with blood. Even the depredation on your com- 
merce by the Barbary powers, sprang. from the crusades of 
the church against those powers. It was a war of creed 
against creed, each boasting of G-od for its author, and reviling 
each other with the name of infidel. If I do not believe as 
you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and 
this is all that it proves. 

There is, however, one point of union wherein all religions 
meet, and that is in the first article of every man's creed, and 
of every nation's creed, that has any creed at all, I believe in 
God. Those who rest here, — and there are millions who do, — 
cannot be wrong as far as their creed goes. Those who choose 
to go further may be wrong, for it is impossible that all can 
be right, since there is so much contradiction among them. 
The first, therefore, are, in my opinion, on the safest side. 

I presume you are so far acquainted with ecclesiastical his- 
tory as to know, and the Bishop who has answered me has 
been obliged to acknowledge the fact, that the books that com- 



SAMUEL ADAMS. 239 

pose the New Testament were voted by yea?, and nays to be 
the Word of God, as you now vote a law, by the Popish Coun- 
cils of Nice and Laodicea, about fourteen hundred and fifty 
years ago. With respect to the fact there is no dispute, nei- 
ther do I mention it for the sake of controversy. This vote 
may appear authority enough to some, and not authority 
enough to others. It is proper, however, that everybody should 
know the fact. 

With respect to the Age of Reason, which you so much 
condemn, and that, I believe, without having read it, for you 
say only that you heard of it, I will inform you of a circum- 
stance, because you cannot know it by other means. 

I have said, in the first page of the first part of that work, 
that it had long been my intention to publish my thoughts 
upon religion, but that I had reserved it to a later time of 
life. I have now to inform you why I wrote it, and published 
it at the time I did. 

In the first place, I saw my life in continual danger. My 
friends were falling as fast as the guillotine could cut their 
heads on 7 , and as I expected every day the same fate, I resolv- 
ed to begin my work. I appeared to myself to be on my 
death-bed, for death was on every side of me, and I had no 
time to lose. This accounts for my writing at the time I did, 
and so nicely did the time and intention meet, that I had not 
finished the first part of the work more than six hours, before 
I was arrested, and taken to prison. Joel Barlow was with 
me, and knows the fact. 

In the second place, the people of France were running 
headlong into atheism, and I had the work translated and 
published in their own language, to stop them in that career, 
and fix them to the first article (as I have before said) of 
every man's creed, who has any creed at all, I believe in God. 
I endangered my own life, in the first place, by opposing in 
the Convention the executing of the King, and labouring to 
show they were trying the monarch and not the man, and that 
the crimes imputed to him were the crimes of the monarchical 
system j and endangered it a second time by opposing atheism, 
and yet some of your priests, for I do not believe that all are 
perverse, cry out, in the icar-wlwop of monarchical priestcraft, 
what an infidel ! what a wicked man is Thomas Paine ! They 



240 LETTER TO 

might as well add, for he believes in God, and is against 
shedding blood. 

But all this war-wlioop of the pulpit has some concealed 
object. Religion is not the cause, but is the stalking horse. 
They put it forward to conceal themselves behind it. It is 
not a secret that there has been a party composed of the 
leaders of the Federalists, for I do not include all Federalists 
with their leaders, who have been working by various means 
for several years past, to overturn the Federal Constitution 
established on the representative system, and place government 
in the new world on the corrupt system of the old. To 
accomplish this a large standing army was necessary, and as a 
pretence for such an army, the danger of a foreign invasion 
must be bellowed forth, from the pulpit, from the press, and 
by their public orators. 

I am not of a disposition inclined to suspicion. It is in its 
nature a mean and cowardly passion, and upon the whole, 
even admitting error into the case, it is better ; I am sure it 
is more generous to be wrong on the side of confidence, than 
on the side of suspicion. But I know as a fact, that the 
English Government distributes annually fifteen hundred 
pounds sterling among the Presbyterian ministers in England, 
and one hundred among those of Ireland;* and when I hear 
of the strange discourses of some of your ministers and pro- 
fessors of colleges, I cannot, as the Quakers say, find freedom 
in my mind to acquit them. Their anti-revolutionary doctrines 
invite suspicion, even against one's will, and in spite of one's 
charity to believe well of them. 

As you have given me one Scripture phrase, I will give you 
another for those ministers. It is said in Exodus, chapter 
xxiii., verse 28, "Thou shalt not revile the Gods, nor curse 
the ruler of thy people. " But those ministers, such I mean 
as Dr. Emmons, curse ruler and people both, for the majority 
are, politically, the people, and it is those who have chosen 
the ruler whom they curse. As to the first part of the verse, 
that of not reviling the Gods, it makes no part of my Scrip- 
ture : I have but one God. 

* There must undoubtedly be a very gross mistake in respect to the 
amount said to be expended ; the sums intended to be expressed were 
probably fifteen hundred thousand, and one hundred thousand pounds. 
— Editor. 






SAMUEL ADAMS. 241 

Since I began this letter, for I write it by piece-meals as I 
have leisure, I have seen the four letters that passed between 
you and John Adams. In your first letter you say, a Let 
divines and philosophers, statesmen and patriots, unite their 
endeavours to renovate tJ»e age by inculcating in the minds of 
youth the fear and love of the Deity, and universal philan- 
thropy." Why, my dear friend, this is exactly my religion, 
and is the whole of it. That you may have an idea that the 
Age of Reason (for I believe you have not read it) inculcates 
this reverential fear and love of the Deity, I will give you a 
paragraph from it. 

" Do we want to contemplate his power ? We see it in the 
immensity of the Creation. Do we want to contemplate his 
wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the 
incomprehensible whole is governed. Do we want to con- 
template his munificence ? We see it in the abundance with 
which he fills the earth. Do we want to contemplate his 
mercy? We see it in his not withholding that abundance 
even from the unthankful." 

As I am fully with you in your first part, that respecting 
the Deity, so am I in your second, that of universal philan- 
thropy ; by which I do not mean merely the sentimental bene- 
volence of wishing well, but the practical benevolence of doing 
good. We cannot serve the Deity in a manner we serve those 
who cannot do without that service. He needs no services 
from us. We can add nothing to eternity. But it is in our 
power to render a service acceptable to him, and that is not by 
praying, but by endeavouring to make his creatures happy. 
A man does not serve G-od when he prays, for it is himself he 
is trying to serve; and as to hiring or paying men to pray, as 
if the Deity needed instruction, it is in my opinion an abomi- 
nation. One good schoolmaster is of more use and of more 
value than a load of such parsons as Dr. Emmons, and some 
others. 

You, my dear and much respected friend, are now far in the 
vale of years ; I have yet, I believe, some years in store, for 
I have a good state of health and a happy mind ; I take care 
of both, by nourishing the first with temperance, and the latter 
with abundance. 

This, I believe, you will allow to be the true philosophy of 
life. You will see by my third letter to the citizens of the 

VOL. I.— 21 



242 LETTER TO SAMUEL ADAMS. 

United States, that I have been exposed to, and preserved 
through many dangers ; but instead of buffeting the Deity 
with prayers, as if I distrusted hini, or must dictate to him, 
I reposed myself on his protection : and you, my friend, will 
find, even in your last moments, more consolation in the silence 
of resignation than in the murmuring wish of prayer. 

In everything which you say in your second letter to John 
Adams, respecting our rights as men and citizens in this world, 
I am perfectly with you. On other points we have to answer 
to our Creator, and not to each other. The key of heaven is 
not in the keeping of any sect, nor ought the road to it to be 
obstructed by any. Our relation to each other in this world 
is as men, and the man who is a friend to man and to his 
rights, let his religious opinions be what they may, is a good 
citizen, to whom I can give, as I ought to do, and as every 
other ought, the right hand of fellowship, and to none with 
more hearty good will, my dear friend, than to you. 

Thomas Paine. 

Federal City, Jan. 1, 1803. 



EXTRACT FROM A LETTER 

TO 

ANDREW A. DEAN * 



Respected Friend : 

I received your friendly letter, for which I am obliged to 
you. It is three weeks ago to-day (Sunday, Aug. 15) that I 
was struck with a fit of an apoplexy, that deprived me of all 
sense and motion. I had neither pulse nor breathing, and the 
people about me supposed me dead. I had felt exceedingly 
well that day, and had just taken a slice of bread and butter, 
for supper, and was going to bed. The fit took me on the 
stairs, as suddenly as if I had been shot through the head ; 
and I got so very much hurt by the fall, that I have not been 
able to get in and out of bed since that day, otherwise than 
being lifted out in a blanket, by two persons ; yet all this 
while my mental faculties have remained as perfect as I ever 
enjoyed them. I consider the scene I have passed through as 
an experiment on dying, and I find that death has no terrors 
for me. As to the people called Christians, they have no evi- 
dence that their religion is true.f There is no more proof 

* Mr. Dean rented Mr. Paine's farm at New Rochelle. 

f Mr. Paine's entering upon the subject of religion on this occasion, 
it may be presumed, was occasioned by the following passage in Mr. 
Dean's letter to him, viz. 

"I have read with good attention your manuscript on dreams, and 
examination on the prophecies in the bible. I am now searching the 
old prophecies, and comparing the same to those said to be quoted in 
the New Testament. I confess the comparison is a matter worthy of 
our serious attention ; I know not the result till I finish ; then, if you 
be living, I shall communicate the same to you : I hope to be with 
you as soon as possible." 

(243) 



244 LETTER TO MR. DEAN. 

that the Bible is the word of God, than that the Koran of 
Mahomet is the word of God. It is education makes all the 
difference. Man, before he begins to think for himself, is as 
much the child of habit in Creeds as he is in ploughing and 
sowing. Yet creeds, like opinions, prove nothing. 

Where is the evidence that the person called Jesus Christ is 
the begotten Son of God ? The case admits not of evidence 
either to our senses, or our mental faculties ; neither has God 
given to man any talent by which such a thing is compre- 
hensible. It cannot therefore be an object for faith to act 
upon, for faith is nothing more than an assent the mind gives 
to something it sees cause to believe is fact. But priests, 
preachers, and fanatics, put imagination in the place of faith, 
and it is the nature of the imagination to believe without 
evidence. 

If Joseph the carpenter dreamed (as the book of Matthew, 
chap. 1st, says he did), that his betrothed wife, Mary, was 
with child, by the Holy Ghost, and that an angel told him so; 
I am not obliged to put faith in his dream, nor do I put any, 
for I put no faith in my own dreams, and I should be weak 
and foolish indeed to put faith in the dreams of others. 

The Christian religion is derogatory to the Creator in all its 
articles. It puts the Creator in an inferior point of view, and 
places the Christian Devil above him. It is he, according to 
the absurd story in Genesis, that outwits the Creator, in the 
garden of Eden, and steals from him his favourite creature, 
man, and at last, obliges him to beget a son, and put that son 
to death, to get man back again, and this the priests of the 
Christian religion call redemption. 

Christian authors exclaim against the practice of offering up 
human sacrifices, which, they say, is done in some countries; 
and those authors make those exclamations without ever re- 
flecting that their own doctrine of salvation is founded on a 
human sacrifice. They are saved, they say, by the blood of 
Christ. The Christian religion begins with a dream, and 
ends with a murder. 

As I am now well enough to set up some hours in the day, 
though not well enough to get up without help, I employ my- 
self as I have always done, in endeavouring to bring man to 
the right use of the reason that God has given him, and to 
direct his mind immediately to his Creator, and not to fanciful 



LETTER TO MR. DEAN. 245 

secondary beings called mediators, as if (rod was superannuated 
or ferocious. 

As to the book called the Bible, it is blasphemy to call it 
the word of God. It is a book of lies and contradiction, and 
a history of bad times and bad men. There is but a few good 
characters in the whole book. The fable of Christ and his 
twelve apostles, which is a parody on the sun and the twelve 
signs of the Zodiac, copied from the ancient religions of the 
eastern world, is the least hurtful part. Everything told of • 
Christ has reference to the sun. His reported resurrection is 
at sun-rise, and that on the first day of the week ; that is, on 
the day anciently dedicated to the sun, and from thence called 
Sunday ; in Latin Dies Soils, the day of the sun ; as the next 
day, Monday, is Moon-day. But there is not room in a letter 
to explain these things. 

While man keeps to the belief of one God, his reason unites 
with his creed. He is not shocked with contradictions and 
horrid stories. His Bible is the heavens and the earth. He 
beholds his Creator in all his works, and everything he beholds 
inspires him with reverence and gratitude. From the good- 
ness of God to all, he learns his duty to his fellow man, and 
stands self-reproved when he transgresses it. Such a man is 
no persecutor. 

But when he multiplies his creed with imaginary things, of 
which he can have neither evidence nor conception, such as 
the tale of the Garden of Eden, the talking serpent, the fall 
of man, the dreams of Joseph the carpenter, the pretended 
resurrection and ascension, of which there is even no historical 
relation, for no historian of those times mentions such a thing, 
he gets into the pathless region of confusion, and turns either 
fanatic or hypocrite. He forces his mind, and pretends to 
believe what he does not believe. This is in general the case 
with the methodists. Their religion is all creed and no morals. 

I have now, my friend, given you a fac simile of my mind 
on the subject of religion and creeds, and my wish is, that you 
make this letter as publicly known as you find opportunities 
of doiDg. 

Yours in friendship, 

Thomas Paine. 

N. Y. Aug. 180G. 

21 * 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 



EXTRACTED FROM THE "PROSPECT, OR VIEW OF THE MORAL WORLD," 
A PERIODICAL WORK, EDITED AND PUBLISHED BY ELIHU PALMER, 
AT NEW YORK, IN THE YEAR 1804. 



The following fugitive pieces were written by Mr. Paine 
occasionally to pass off an idle hour, and communicated for the 
Prospect, to aid his friend, Mr. Palmer, in support of that 
publication. Perhaps, in some cases, it may appear that the 
same ideas have been expressed in his other works; but, if so, 
the various points of view, in which they are here placed, it 
is presumed, will not fail to give an interest to these miscel- 
laneous remarks. 

The same signature : are continued as were subscribed to the 
original communications. 



REMARKS ON R. HALL'S SERMON. 

\_The following piece, obligingly communicated by Mr. Paine, 
for the Prospect, is full of that acutehess of mind, perspi- 
cuity of expression, and clearness of discernment for which 
this excellent author is so remarkable in all his ivritings.'] 

Robert Hall, a protestant minister in England, preached 
and published a sermon against what he calls " Modern Infi- 
delity. ," A copy of it was sent to a gentleman in America, 
with a request for his opinion thereon. That gentleman sent 
it to a friend of his in New-York, with the request written on 
the cover — and this last sent it to Thomas Paine, who wrote 

(240) 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 247 

the following observations on the blank leaf at the end of the 
Sermon. 

The preacher of the foregoing sermon speaks a great deal 
about infidelity, but does not define what he means by it. 
His harangue is a general exclamation. Everything, I sup- 
pose, that is not in his creed is infidelity with him, and his 
creed is infidelity with me. Infidelity is believing falsely. 
If wdiat Christians believe is not true, it is the Christians that 
are the infidels. 

The point between Deists and Christians is not about doctrine, 
but about fact — for if the things believed by the Christians to be 
facts, are not facts, the doctrine founded thereon falls of itself. 
There is such a book as the Bible, but is it a fact that the Bible 
.is revealed religion? The Christians cannot prove it is. They 
put tradition in place of evidence, and tradition is not proof. 
If it were, the reality of witches could be proved by the same 
kind of evidence. 

The Bible is a history of the times of which it speaks, and 
history is not revelation. The obscene and vulgar stories in 
the Bible are as repugnant to our ideas of the purity of a divine 
Being, as the horrid cruelties and murders it ascribes to him, 
are repugnant to our ideas of his justice. It is the reverence 
of the Deists for the attributes of the Deity, that causes them 
to reject the Bible. 

Is the account which the Christian church gives of the per- 
son called Jesus Christ, a fact or a fable? Is it a fact that he 
was begotten by the Holy Ghost ? The Christians cannot prove 
it, for the case does not admit of proof. The things called 
miracles in the Bible, such for instance as raising the dead, 
admitted, if true, of ocular demonstration, but the story of the 
conception of Jesus Christ in the womb is a case beyond mira- 
cle, for it did not admit of demonstration. Mary, the reputed 
mother of Jesus, who must be supposed to know best, never 
said so herself, and all the evidence of it is, that the book of 
Matthew says, that Joseph dreamed an angel told him so. 
Had an old maid of two or three hundred years of age, brought 
forth a child, it would have been much better presumptive evi- 
dence of a supernatural conception, than Matthew's story of 
Joseph's dream about his young wife. 

Is it a fact that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the world, 
and how is it proved ? If a God, he could not die, and as a 



248 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

man he could not redeem ; how then is this redemption proved 
to be fact ? It is said that Adam eat of the forbidden fruit, com- 
monly called an apple, and thereby subjected himself and all 
his posterity for ever to eternal damnation. This is worse than 
visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the 
third and fourth generations. But how was the death of 
Jesus Christ to affect or alter the case ? — Did God thirst for 
blood ? If so, would it not have been better to have crucified 
Adam at once upon the forbidden tree, and made a new man ? 
Would not this have been more creator-like, than repairing 
the old one ? Or, did God, when he made Adam, supposing 
the story to be true, exclude himself from the right of makiDg 
another ? Or impose on himself the necessity of breeding from 
the old stock ? Priests should first prove facts, and deduce 
doctrines from them afterwards. But instead of this, they 
assume everything, and prove nothing. Authorities drawn 
from the Bible are no more than authorities drawn from other 
books, unless it can be proved that the Bible is revelation. 

This story of the redemption will not stand examination. 
That man should redeem himself from the sin of eating an 
apple, by committing a murder on Jesus Christ, is the 
strangest system of religion ever set up. Deism is perfect 
purity compared with this. It is an established principle with 
the Quakers not to shed blood — suppose then all Jerusalem 
had been Quakers when Christ lived, there would have been 
nobody to crucify him, and in that case, if man is redeemed 
by his blood, which is the belief of the church, there could 
have been no redemption — and the people of Jerusalem must 
all have been damned, because they were too good to commit 
murder. The Christian system of religion is an outrage on 
common sense. Why is man afraid to think ? 

Why do not the Christians, to be consistent, make saints of 
Judas and Pontius Pilate, for they were the persons who ac- 
complished the act of salvation. The merit of a sacrifice, if 
there can be any merit in it, was never in the thing sacrificed, 
but in the persons offering up the sacrifice — and therefore 
Judas and Pontius Pilate ought to stand first on the calendar 
of saints. 

Thomas Paine. 



OF THE WORD RELIGION, 

AND OTHER WORDS OF UNCERTAIN SIGNIFICATION. 



The word religion is a word of forced application when 
used with respect to the worship of God. The root of the 
word is the Latin verb ligo, to tie or bind. From ligo, 
comes religo, to tie or bind over again, or make more fast— 
from religo comes the substantive religio, which with the ad- 
dition of n makes the English substantive religion. The 
French use the word properly — when a woman enters a con- 
vent, she is called a noviciate, that is, she is upon trial or 
probation. When she takes the oath, she is called a religieu&e, 
that is. she is tied or bound by that oath to the performance 
of it. We use the word in the same kind of sense when we 
say we will religiously perform the promise that we make. 

But the word, without referring to its etymology, has, in 
the manner it is used, no definitive meaning, because it does 
not designate what religion a man is of. There is the religion 
of the Chinese, of the Tartars, of the Bramins, of the Persians, 
of the Jews, of the Turks, &c. 

The word Christianity is equally as vague as the word re- 
ligion. No two sectaries can agree what it is. It is a lo here 
and lo there. The two principal sectaries, Papists and Pro- 
testants, have often cut each others' throats about it : — The 
Papists call the Protestants heretics, and the Protestants call 
the Papists idolaters. The minor sectaries have shown the 
same spirit of rancour, but as the civil restrains them from 
blood, they content themselves with preachiDg damnation 
against each other. 

The word 'protectant has a positive signification in the sense 
it is used. It means protesting against the authority of the 
Pope, and this is the only article in which the protestants 
agree. In every other sense, with respect to religion, the 
word protestant is as vague as the word Christian. When we 
say an episcopalian, a presbyterian, a baptist, a quaker, we 
know what those persons are, and what tenets they hold— but 
when we say a Christian, we know he is not a Jew nor a Ma- 

(249) 



250 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

hometan, but we know not if he be a trinitarian or an anti- 
trinitarian, a believer in what is called the immaculate concep- 
tion, or a disbeliever, a man of seven sacraments, or of two 
sacraments, or of none. The word Christian describes what a 
man is not, but not what he is. 

The word Theology, from Theos, the Greek word for God, 
and meaning the study and knowledge of God, is a word, that 
strictly speaking, belongs to Theists or Deists, and not to 
the Christians. The head of the Christian church is the per- 
son called Christ — -but the head of the church of the Theists, 
or Deists, as they are more commonly called, from Deus, the 
Latin word for God, is God himself, and therefore the word 
Theology belongs to that church which has Theos or God for 
its head, and not to the Christian church, which has the person 
called Christ for its head. Their technical word is Christian- 
ity, and they cannot agree what Christianity is. 

The words revealed religion, and natural religion, require 
also explanation. They are both invented terms, contrived by 
the church for the support of priestcraft. With respect to 
the first, there is no evidence of any such thing, except in the 
universal revelation that God has made of his power, his wis- 
dom, his goodness, in the structure of the universe, and in all 
the works of creation. We have no cause or ground from 
anything we behold in those works, to suppose God would 
deal partially by mankind, and reveal knowledge to one nation 
and withhold it from another, and then damn them for not 
knowing it. The sun shines an equal quantity of light all 
over the world — and mankind in all ages and countries are 
endued with reason, and blessed - with sight, to read the visible 
works of God in the creation, and so intelligible is this book, 
that he that runs may read. We admire the wisdom of the 
ancients, yet they had no bibles, nor books called revelation. 
They cultivated the reason that God gave them, studied him 
in his works, and arose to eminence. 

As to the Bible, whether true or fabulous, it is a history, 
and history is not revelation. If Solomon had seven hundred 
wives and three hundred concubines, and if Sampson slept in 
Delilah's lap, and she cut his hair off, the relation of those 
things is mere history, that needed no revelation from heaven 
to tell it; neither docs it need any revelation to tell us that 
Sampson was a fool for his pains, and Solomon too. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 251 

As to the expression so often used in the Bible, that the 
word of the Lord came to such an one, or such an one, it was 
the fashion of speaking in those times, like the expression 
used by a Quaker, that the spirit moveth him, or that used by 
priests, that they have a call. We ought not to be deceived 
by phrases because they are ancient. But if we admit the 
supposition that God would condescend to reveal himself in 
words, we ought not to believe it would be in such idle and 
profligate stories as are in the Bible, and it is for this reason, 
among others, which our reverence to God inspires, that the 
Deists deny that the book called the Bible is the word of God, 
or that it is revealed religion. 

With respect to the term natural religion, it is upon the face 
of it the opposite of artificial religion, and it is impossible for 
any man to be certain that what is called revealed religion, is 
not artificial. Man has the power of making books, invent- 
ing stories of God, and calling them revelation, or the word 
of God. The Koran exists as an instance that this can be 
done, and we must be credulous, indeed, to suppose that this 
is the only instance, and Mahomet the only impostor. The 
Jews could match him, and the Church of Borne could over- 
match the Jews. The Mahometans believe the Koran, the 
Christians believe the Bible, and it is education makes all the 
difference. 

Books, whether Bibles or Korans, carry no evidence of 
being the work of any other power than man. It is only that 
which man cannot do that carries the evidence of being the work 
of a superior power. Man could not invent and make a Universe ; 
he could not invent' Nature, for Nature is of divine origin. It 
is the laws by which the Universe is governed. When, there- 
fore, we look through Nature up to Nature's God, we are in 
the right road of happiness ; but when we trust to books as 
the word of God, and confide in them as revealed religion, we 
are afloat on an ocean of uncertainty, and shatter into contending 
factions. The term, therefore, natural religion, explains itself 
to be divine religion, and the term revealed religion involves 
in it the suspicion of being artificial. 

To show the necessity of understanding the meaning of 
words, I will mention an instance of a minister, I believe of 
the Episcopalian church of Newark, in Jersey. He wrote and 
published a book, and entitled it " An Antidote to Deism." An 



252 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

antidote to Deism, must be Atheism. It has no other anti- 
dote — for what can be an antidote to the belief of a God, but 
the disbelief of God ? Under the tuition of such pastors, what 
but ignorance and false information can be expected ? 

T. P. 



OF CAIN AND ABEL. 

The story of Cain and Abel is told in the fourth chapter 
of Genesis; Cain was the elder brother, and Abel the younger,, 
and Cain killed Abel. The Egyptian story of Typhon and 
Osiris, and the Jewish story in Genesis of Cain and Abel, 
have the appearance of being the same story differently told, 
and that it came originally from Egypt. 

In the Egyptian story, Typhon and Osiris are brothers; 
Typhon is the elder, and Osiris the younger, and Typhon kills 
Osiris. The story is an allegory on darkness and light; Ty- 
phon, the elder brother, is darkness, because darkness was 
supposed to be more ancient than light : Osiris is the good 
light who rules during the summer months, and brings forth 
the fruits of the earth, and is the favourite, as Abel is said to 
have been, for which Typhon hates him ; and when the winter 
comes, and cold and darkness overspread the earth, Typhon is 
represented as having killed Osiris out of malice, as Cain is 
said to have killed Abel. 

The two stories are alike in their circumstances and their 
event, and are probably but the same story; what corrobo- 
rates this opinion is, that the fifth chapter of Genesis histo- 
rically contradicts the reality of the story of Cain and Abel 
in the fourth chapter, for though the name of Scth, a son of 
Adam, is mentioned in the fourth chapter, he is spoken of in 
the fifth chapter as if he was the first-born of Adam. The 
chapter begins thus : — 

" This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day 
that God created man, in the likeness of God created he him. 
Male and female created he them, and blessed them, and 
called their name Adam in the day when they were created. 
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years and begat a 
son, in his own likeness and after his own image, and called 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 253 

his name Seih." The rest of the chapter goes on with the 
genealogy. 

Anybody reading this chapter cannot suppose there were 
any sons born before Seih. The chapter begins with what is 
called the creation of Adam, and calls itself the book of the 
generations of Adam, yet no mention is made of such persons 
as Cain and Abel ; one thing, however, is evident on the face 
of these two chapters, which is, that the same person is not 
the writer of both j the most blundering historian could not 
have committed himself in such a manner. 

Though I look on everything in the first ten chapters of 
Genesis to be fiction, yet fiction, historically told, should be 
consistent, whereas these two chapters are not. The Cain and 
Abel of Genesis appear to be no other than the ancient 
Egyptian story of Typhon and Osiris, the darkness and the 
light, which answered very well as an allegory without being 
believed as a fact. 



OF THE TOWER OF BABEL. 



The story of the tower of Babel is told in the eleventh 
chapter of Genesis. It begins thus : — " And the whole earth 
(it was but a very little part of it they knew) was of one lan- 
guage and of one speech. — And it came to pass as they jour- 
neyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of 
Shinar, and they dwelt there. — And they said one to another, 
Go to, let us make brick and burn them thoroughly, and they 
had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. — -And 
they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top 
may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we 
be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. — And 
the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the 
children of men builded. — And the Lord said, Behold the peo- 
ple is one, and they have all one language, and this they be- 
gin to doj and now nothing will be restrained from them which 
they have imagined to do. — Go to, let us go down, and there 

vol. i. — 22 



254 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

confound their language, that they may not understand one 
another's speech.— So (that is, by that means), the Lord scat- 
tered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, 
and they left off building the city." 

This is the story, and a very foolish inconsistent story it is. 
In the first place, the familiar and irreverend manner in which 
the Almighty is spoken of in this chapter, is offensive to a 
serious mind. As to the project of building a tower whose top 
should reach to heaven, there never could be a people so fool- 
ish as to have such a notion ; but to represent the Almighty 
as jealous of the attempt, as the writer of the story has done, 
is adding profanation to folly. " Go to" say the builders, 
a let us build us a tower whose top shall reach to heaven." 
" Go to," says G-od, " let us go down and confound their lan- 
guage. " This quaintness is indecent, and the reason given for 
it is worse, for, "now nothing will be restrained from them 
which they have imagined to do." This is representing the 
Almighty as jealous of their getting into heaven. The story 
is too ridiculous, even as a fable, to account for the diversity 
of languages in the world, for which it seems to have been in- 
tended. 

As to the project of confounding their language for the pur- 
pose of making them separate, it is altogether inconsistent ; 
because, instead of producing this effect, it would, by increas- 
ing their difficulties, render them more necessary to each 
other, and cause them to keep together. Where could they 
go to better themselves ? 

Another observation upon this story is, the inconsistency 
of it with respect to the opinion that the Bible is the word of 
God given for the information of mankind : for nothing could 
so effectually prevent such a word being known by mankind 
as confounding their language. The people who after this 
spoke different languages could no more understand such a 
word generally, than the builders of Babel could understand 
one another. It would have been necessary, therefore, had 
such word ever been given or intended to be given, that the 
whole-earth should be, as they say it was at first, of one lan- 
guage and of one speech, and that it should never have been 
confounded. 

The case however is, that the Bible will not bear examina- 
tion in any part of it, which it would do if it was the word of 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 255 

God. Those who most believe it are those who know least 
about it, and priests always take care to keep the inconsistent 
and contradictory parts out of sight. T. P. 



Of the Religion of Deism compared with the Christian Reli- 
gion, and the superiority of the former over the latter. 



Every person, of whatever religious denomination he may 
be, is a Deist in the first article of his Creed. Deism, from 
the Latin word Deus, God, is the belief of a God, and this be- 
lief is the first article of every man's creed. 

It is on this article, universally consented to by all man- 
kind, that the Deist builds his church, and here he rests. 
Whenever we step aside from this article, by mixing it with 
articles of human invention, we wander into a labyrinth of un- 
certainty and fable, and become exposed to every kind of im- 
position by pretenders to revelation. The Persian shows the 
Zendavesta of Zoroaster, the lawgiver of Persia, and calls it 
the divine law ; the Bramin shows the Shaster, revealed, he 
says, by God to Brama, and given to him out of a cloud ; the 
Jew shows what he calls the law of Moses, given, he says, by 
God, on the Mount Sinai; the Christian shows a collection of 
books and epistles written by nobody knows who, and called 
the New Testament; and the Mahometan shows the Koran, 
given, he says, by God to Mahomet : each of these calls itself 
revealed religion, and the only true word of God, and this the 
followers of each profess to believe from the habit of educa- 
tion, and each believes the others are imposed upon. 

But when the divine gift of reason begins to expand itself 
in the mind and calls man to reflection, he then reads and con- 
templates God in his works, and not in books pretending to 
be revelations. The Creation is the Bible of the true believer 
in God. Everything in this vast volume inspires him with 
sublime ideas of the Creator. The little and paltry, and often 
obscene, tales of the Bible sink into wretchedness when put in 
comparison with this mighty work. The Deist needs none of 



256 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

those tricks and shows called miracles to confirm his faith, for 
what can be a greater miracle than the Creation itself, and his 
own existence? 

There is a happiness in Deism, when rightly understood, 
that is not to be found in any other system of religion. All 
other systems have something in them that either shock our 
reason, or are repugnant to it, and man, if he thinks at all, 
must stifle his reason in order to force himself to believe them. 
But in Deism our reason and our belief become happily 
united. The wonderful structure of the universe, and every- 
thing we behold in the system of the creation, prove to us, 
far better than books can do, the existence of a God, and at 
the same time proclaim His attributes. It is by the exercise 
of our reason that we are enabled to contemplate God in his 
works and imitate him in his ways. When we see his care 
and goodness extended over all his creatures, it teaches us our 
duty towards each other, while it calls forth our gratitude to 
him. It is by forgetting God in his works, and running after 
the books of pretended revelation that man has wandered from 
the straight path of duty and happiness, and become by turns 
the victim of doubt and the dupe of delusion. 

Except in the first article in the Christian creed, that of be- 
lieving in God, there is not an article in it but fills the mind 
with doubt as to the truth of it, the instant man begins to think. 
Now every article in a creed that is necessary to the happi- 
ness and salvation of man, ought to be as evident to the reason 
and comprehension of man as the first article is, for God has 
not given us reason for the purpose of confounding us, but 
that we should use it for our own happiness and his glory. 

The truth of the first article is proved by God himself, and 
is universal; for the creation is of itself demonstration of the 
existence of a Creator. But the second article, that of God's 
begetting a son, is not proved in like manner, and stands on 
no other authority than that of a tale. Certain books in what 
is called the New Testament tell us that Joseph dreamed that 
an angel told him so, (Matthew, chap, i., v. 20): "And be- 
hold the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, 
saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee 
Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the 
Holy Ghost/' The evidence upon this article bears no 
comparison with the evidence upon the first article, and there- 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 257 

fore is not entitled to the same credit, and ought not to be 
made an article in a creed, because the evidence cf it is defec- 
tive, and what evidence there is, is doubtful and suspicious. 
"We do not believe the first article on the authority of books, 
whether called Bibles or Korans, nor yet on the visionary 
authority of dreams, but on the authority of God's own visible 
works in the creation. The nations who never heard of such 
books, nor of such people as Jews, Christians, or Mahome- 
tans, believe the existence of a God as fully as we do, because 
it is self-evident. The work of man's hands is a proof of the 
existence of man as fully as his personal appearance would be. 
When we see a watch, we have as positive evidence of the 
existence of a watchmaker, as if we saw him ; and in like 
manner the creation is evidence to our reason and our senses 
of the existence of a Creator. But there is nothing in the 
works of God that is evidence that he begat a son, nor any- 
thing in the system of creation that corroborates such an idea, 
and therefore we are not authorized in believing it. 

But presumption can assume anything, and therefore it 
makes Joseph's dream to be of equal authority with the exist- 
ence of God, and to help it on calls it revelation. It is im- 
possible for the mind of man in its serious moments, however 
it may have been entangled by education, or beset by priest- 
craft, not to stand still and doubt upon the truth of this 
article and of its creed. But this is not all. 

The second article of the Christian creed having brought 
the son of Mary into the world, (and this Mary, according to 
the chronological tables, was a girl of only fifteen years of age 
when this son was born,) the next article goes on to account 
for his being begotten, which was, that when he grew a man 
he should be put to death, to expiate, they say, the sin that 
Adam brought into the world by eating an apple or some kind 
of forbidden fruit. 

But though this is the creed of the church of Rome, from 
whence the Protestants borrowed it, it is a creed which that 
church has manufactured of itself, for it is not contained in, 
nor derived from, the book called the New Testament. The 
four books called the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and 
John, which give, or pretend to give, the birth, sayings, life, 
preaching, and death of Jesus Christ, make no mention of 
what is called the fall of man j nor is the name of Adam to 



258 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

be found in any of those books, which it certainly would be, 
if the writers of them believed that Jesus was begotten, born, 
and died for the purpose of redeeming mankind from the sin 
which Adam had brought into the world. Jesus never speaks 
of Adam himself, of the garden of Eden, nor of what is called 
the fall of man. 

But the church of Rome having set up its new religion 
which it called Christianity, and invented the creed which it 
named the apostles' creed, in which it calls Jesus the only son 
of God, conceived by the Holy Ghost, and bom of the Virgin 
Mary, things of which it is impossible that man or woman 
can have any idea, and consequently no belief but in words ; 
and for which there is no authority but the idle story of 
Joseph's dream in the first chapter of Matthew, which any 
designing impostor or foolish fanatic might make. It then 
manufactured the allegories in the book of Genesis into fact, 
and the allegorical tree of life and the tree of knowledge into 
real trees, contrary to the belief of the first Christians, and for 
which there is not the least authority in any of the books of 
the New Testament; for in none of them is there any mention 
made of such place as the Garden of Eden, nor of anything 
that is said to have happened there. 

But the church of Rome could not erect the person called 
Jesus into a Saviour of the world without making the allegories 
in the book of Genesis into fact, though the New Testament, 
as before observed, gives no authority for it. All at once the 
allegorical tree of knowledge became, according to the church, 
a real tree, the fruit of it real fruit, and the eating of it sin- 
ful. As priestcraft was always the enemy of knowledge, 
because priestcraft supports itself by keeping people in delu- 
sion and ignorance, it was consistent with its policy to make 
the acquisition of knowledge a real sin. 

The church of Rome having done this, it then brings 
forward Jesus the son of Mary as suffering death to redeem 
mankind from sin, which Adam, it says, had brought into the 
world by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge. But as 
it is impossible for reason to believe such a story, because it 
can see no reason for it, nor have any evidence of it, the 
church then tells us we must not regard our reason, but must 
believe, as it were, and that through thick and thin, as if God 
had given man reason like a plaything, or a rattle, on purpose 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 259 

to make fun of him. Reason is the forbidden tree of priest- 
craft, and may serve to explain the allegory of the forbidden 
tree of knowledge, for we may reasonably suppose the allegory 
had some meaning and application at the time it was invented. 
It was the practice of the eastern nations to convey their 
meaning by allegory, and relate it in the manner of fact. 
Jesus followed the same method, yet nobody ever supposed 
the allegory or parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, the 
Prodigal Son, the Ten Virgins, &c, were facts. Why then 
should the tree of knowledge, which is far more romantic in 
idea than the parables in the New Testament are, be supposed 
to be a real tree ?* The answer to this is, because the church 
could not make its new fangled system, which it called 
Christianity, hold together without it. To have made Christ 
to die on account of an allegorical tree would have been too 
barefaced a fable. 

But the account, as it is given of Jesus in the New Testa- 
ment, even visionary as it is, does not support the creed of the 
church that he died for the redemption of the world. Accord- 
ing to that account he was crucified and buried on Friday, and 
rose again in good health on the Sunday morning, for we do 
not hear that he was sick. This cannot be called dying, and 
is rather making fun of death than suffering it. There are 
thousands of men and women also, who, if they could know 
they should come back again in good health in about thirty-six 
hours, would prefer such kind of death for the sake of the 
experiment, and to know what the other side of the grave was. 
Why then should that which would be only a voyage of curious 
amusement to us be magnified into merit and sufferings in 
him ? If a God he could not suffer death, for immortality 
cannot die, and as a man his death could be no more than the 
death of any other person. 

The belief of the redemption of Jesus Christ is altogether 
an invention of the church of Rome, not the doctrine of the 
New Testament. What the writers of the New Testament 
attempt to prove by the story of Jesus is, the resurrection of 

* The remark of the Emperor Julian on the story of the Tree of 
Kno-wledge is worth observing. " If," said he, " there ever had been, 
or could be, a Tree of Knowledge, instead of God forbidding man to 
eat thereof, it would be that of which he would order him to eat the 
most." 



260 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

the same hody from the grove, which was the belief of the 
Pharisees, in opposition to the Sadducees (a sect of Jews), who 
denied it. Paul, who was brought up a Pharisee, labours hard 
at this point, for it was the creed of his own Pharisaical 
church. The XV chap., 1st of Corinthians is full of supposed 
cases and assertions about the resurrection of the same body, 
but there is not a word in it about redemption. This chapter 
makes part of the funeral service of the Episcopal church. 
The dogma of the redemption is the fable of priestcraft in- 
vented since the time the New Testament was compiled, and 
the agreeable delusion of it suited with the depravity of im- 
moral livers. When men are taught to ascribe all their crimes 
and vices to the temptations of the Devil, and to believe that 
Jesus, by his death, rubs all off and pays their passage to heaven 
gratis, they become as careless in morals as a spendthrift 
would be of money, were he told that his father had engaged 
to pay off all his scores. It is a doctrine, not only dangerous 
to morals in this world, but to our happiness in the next 
world, because it holds out such a cheap, easy, and lazy way 
of getting to heaven as has a tendency to induce men to hug 
the delusion of it to their own injury. 

But there are times when men have serious thoughts, and 
it is at such times when they begin to think, that they begin 
to doubt the truth of the Christian religion, and well they may, 
for it is too fanciful and too full of conjecture, inconsistency, 
improbability, and irrationality, to .afford consolation to the 
thoughtful man. His reason revolts against his creed. He 
sees that none of its articles are proved or can be proved. He 
may believe that such a person as is called Jesus (for Christ 
was not his name) was born and grew to be a man, because it 
is no more than a natural and probable case. But who is to 
prove he is the son of God, that he was begotten by the Holy 
Ghost? Of these things there can be no proof; and that 
which admits not of proof, and is against the laws of probabi- 
lity, and the order of nature, which God himself has established, 
is not an object for belief. God has not given man reason to 
embarrass him, but to prevent his being imposed upon. 

He may believe that Jesus was crucified, because many 
others were crucified, but who is to prove he was crucified for 
the sins of the world? This article has no evidence, not even 
in the New Testament ; and if it had, where is the proof that 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 261 

the New Testament, in relating things neither probable nor 
proveabie, is to be believed as true ? When an article in a 
creed does not admit of proof nor of probability, the salvo- is 
to call it revelation : But this is only putting one difficulty in 
the place of another, for it is as impossible to prove a thing to 
be revelation as it is to prove that Mary was gotten with child 
by the Holy Ghost. 

Here it is that the religion of Deism is superior to the 
Christian religion. It is free from all those invented and 
torturing articles that shock our reason or injure our humanity, 
and with which the Christian religion abounds. Its creed is 
pare and sublimely simple. It believes in God, and there it 
rests. It honours reason as the choicest gift of God to man, 
and the faculty by which he is enabled to contemplate the 
power, wisdom, and goodness of the Creator displayed in the 
creation j and reposing itself on his protection, both here and 
hereafter, it avoids all presumptuous beliefs, and rejects, as 
the fabulous inventions of men, all books pretending to 
revelation. T. P, 



TO THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY, STYLING ITSELF THE 
MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 



The New York Gazette of the IQth (August) contains the fol- 
lowing article — " On Tuesday, a Committee of the Mission- 
ary Society, consisting chiefly of distinguished Clergymen, 
had an interview at the City Hotel, with the Chiefs of the 
Osage tribe of Indians, now in this ..City (New York), to 
whom they presented a Bible, together with an Address, the 
object of which was, to inform them that this good book 
contained the will and laws of the GREAT SPIRIT." 



It is to be hoped some humane person will, on account of 
our people on the frontiers, as well as of the Indians, undeceive 
them with respect to the present the Missionaries have made 
them, and which they call a good, book, containing, they say, 
the will and laws of the GREAT SPIRIT. Can those 



262 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

Missionaries suppose that the assassination of men, women, 
and children, and sucking infants, related in the books 
ascribed to Moses, Joshua, &e>, and blasphemously said to be 
done by the command of the Lord, the Great Spirit, can be 
edifying to our Indian neighbours, or advantageous to us ? Is 
not the Bible warfare the same kind of warfare as the Indians 
themselves carry on, that of indiscriminate destruction, and 
against which humanity shudders ; can the horrid examples 
and vulgar obscenity, with which the Bible abounds, improve 
the morals, or civilize the manners of the Indians ? Will they 
learn sobriety and decency from drunken Noah and beastly 
Lot; or will their daughters be edified by the example of 
Lot's daughters ? Will the prisoners they take in war be 
treated the better by their knowing the horrid story of 
Samuel's hewing Agag in pieces like a block of wood, or 
David's putting them under harrows of iron ? Will not the 
shocking accounts of the destruction of the Canaanites when 
the Israelites invaded their country, suggest the idea that we 
may serve them in the same manner, or the accounts stir them 
up to do the like to our people on the frontiers, and then 
justify the assassination by the Bible the Missionaries have 
given them ? Will those Missionary Societies never leave 
off doing mischief? 

In the account which this missionary Committee gave of 
their interview, they make the Chief of the Indians to say, 
that, a as neither he nor his people could read it, he begged 
that some good white man might be sent to instruct them." 

It is necessary the General Government keep a strict eye 
over those Missionary Societies, who under the pretence of 
instructing the Indians, send spies into their country to find 
out the best lands. No society should be permitted to have 
intercourse with the Indian tribes, nor send any person among 
them, but with the knowledge and consent of the Government. 
The present administration has brought the Indians into a 
good disposition, and is improving them in the moral and 
civil comforts of life ; but if these self-created societies be 
suffered to interfere, and send their speculating Missionaries 
among them, the laudable object of Government will be 
defeated. Priests, we know, are not remarkable for doing 
anything gratis; they have, in general, some scheme in every- 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 263 

thing they do, either to impose on the ignorant or derange the 
operations of Government. 

A Friend to the Indians. 



OF THE SABBATH DAY OF CONNECTICUT. 



The word Sabbath means rest, that is, cessation from 
labour ) but the stupid Blue Laws* of Connecticut make a 
labour of rest, for they oblige a person to sit still from sun- 
rise to sunset on a Sabbath day, which is hard work. Fana- 
ticism made those laws, and hypocrisy pretends to reverence 
them, for where such laws prevail hypocrisy will prevail also. 

One of those laws says, "No person shall run on a Sabbath 
day, nor walk in his garden, nor elsewhere, but reverently to 
and from meeting." These fanatical hypocrites forget that 
God dwells not in temples made with hands, and that the 
earth is full of his glory. One of the finest scenes and sub- 
jects of religious contemplation is to walk into the woods and 
fields, and survey the works of the God of the Creation. The 
wide expanse of heaven, the earth covered with verdure, the 
lofty forest, the waving corn, the magnificent roll of mighty 
rivers, and the murmuring melody of the cheerful brooks, are 
scenes that inspire the mind with gratitude and delight ; but 
this the gloomy Calvinist of Connecticut must not behold on a 
Sabbath day. Entombed within the walls of his dwelling, he 
shuts from his view the temple of creation. The sun shines 
no joy to him. The gladdening voice of nature calls on him 
in vain. He is deaf, dumb, and blind to everything around 
him that God has made. Such is the Sabbath day of Connec- 
ticut. 

From whence could come this miserable notion of devotion? 
It comes from the gloominess of the Calvinistic creed. If men 
love darkness rather than light, because their works are evil, 
the ulcerated mind of a Calvinist, who sees Grod only in terror, 

* They were called Blue Laws because they were originally printed 
on blue paper. 



264 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

and sits brooding over the scenes of hell and damnation, can 
have no joy in beholding the glories of the creation. Nothing 
in that mighty and wondrous system accords with his principles 
or his devotion. He sees nothing there that tells him that 
God created millions on purpose to be damned, and that 
children of a span long are born to burn for ever in hell. The 
creation preaches a different doctrine to this. ""We there see 
that the care and goodness of God is extended impartially 
over all tbe creatures he has made. The worm of the earth 
shares his protection equally with the elephant of the desert. 
The grass that springs beneath our feet grows by his bounty 
as well as the cedars of Lebanon. Everything in the creation 
reproaches the Calvinist with unjust ideas of God, and dis- 
owns the hardness and ingratitude of his principles. There- 
fore he shuns the sight of them on a Sabbath day. 

An Enemy to Cant and Imposition. 



OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENT. 



Archbishop Tillotson says, "The difference between the 
style of the Old and New Testament is so very remarkable, 
that one of the greatest sects in the primitive times, did, upon 
this very ground, found their heresy of two Gods, the one evil, 
fierce, and cruel, whom they called the God of the Old Testa- 
ment j the other, good, kind, and merciful, whom they called the 
God of the New Testament; so great a difference is there 
between the representations that are given of God in the books 
of the Jewish and Christian Religion, as to give, at least, some 
colour and pretence to an imagination of two Gods." Thus 
far Tillotson. 

But the case was, that as the Church had picked out several 
passages from the Old Testament, which she most absurdly and 
falsely calls prophecies of Jesus Christ, (whereas there is no 
prophecy of any such person, as any one may see by examining 
the passages and the cases to which they apply,) she was under 
the necessity of keeping up the credit of the Old Testament, 
because if that fell the other would soon follow, and the 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 265 

Christian system of faith would soon he at an end. As a hook 
of morals, there are several parts of the New Testament that 
are good ; hut they are no other than what had been preached 
in the Eastern world several hundred years before Christ was 
born. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, who lived five 
hundred years before the time of Christ, says, acknowledge 
thy benefits by the return of benefits, but never revenge in- 
juries. 

The clergy in Popish countries were cunning enough to 
know, that if the Old Testament was made public, the fallacy 
of the New, with respect to Christ, would be detected, and 
they prohibited the use of it, and always took it away wher- 
ever they found it. The Deists, on the contrary, always en- 
couraged the reading it, that people might see and judge for 
themselves, that a Book so full of contradictions and wicked- 
ness, could not be the word of God, and that we dishonour 
God by ascribing it to him. 

A True Deist. 



Hints towards forming a Society for inquiring into the truth 
or falsehood of ancient History, so far as History is con- 
nected with systems of religion, ancient and modern. 



It has been customary to class history into three divisions, 
distinguished by the names of Sacred, Profane, and Ecclesias- 
tical. By the first is meant the Bible; by the second, the 
history of nations, of men and things ; and by the third, the 
history of the church and its priesthood. 

Nothing is more easy than to give names, and therefore 
mere names signify nothing unless they lead to the dis- 
covery of some cause for which that name was given. For 
example, Sunday is the name given to the first day of the 
week, in the English language, and it is the same in the Latin, 
that is, it has the same meaning, (Dies Soils) and also in the 
German, and in several other languages. Why then was this 
name given to that day ? Because it was the day dedicated 
23 



266 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

by the ancient world to the luminary, which in English we 
call the Sun, and therefore the day Sun-day, or the day of 
the Sun ; as in the like manner we call the second day Mon- 
day, the day dedicated to the Moon. 

Here the name, Sunday, leads to the cause of its being 
called so, and we have visible evidence of the fact, because we 
behold the Sun from whence the name comes ; but this is not 
the case when we distinguish one part of history from another 
by the name of Sacred. All histories have been written by 
men. We have no evidence, nor any cause to believe, that 
any have been written by God. That part of the Bible called 
the Old Testament, is the history of the Jewish nation, from 
the time of Abraham, which begins in the 11th chap, of 
Genesis, to the downfall of that nation by Nebuchadnezzar, 
and is no more entitled to be called sacred than any other his- 
tory. It is altogether the contrivance of priestcraft that has 
given it that name. So far from its being sacred, it has not 
the appearance of being true in many of the things it relates. 
It must be better authority than a book, which any impostor 
might make, as Mahomet made the Koran, to make a thought- 
ful man believe that the sun and moon stood still, or that 
Moses and Aaron turned the Nile, which is larger than the 
Delaware, into blood, and that the Egyptian magicians did the 
same. These things have too much the appearance of romance 
to be believed for fact. 

It would be of use to inquire, and ascertain the time, when 
that part of the Bible called the Old Testament first appeared. 
From all that can be collected there was no such book till after 
the Jews returned from captivity iu Babylon, and that it is 
the work of the Pharisees of the Second Temple. How they 
came to make the 19th chapter of the 2d book of Kings, and 
the 37th of Isaiah, word for word alike, can only be accounted 
for by their having no plan to go by, and not knowing what 
they were about. The same is the case with respect to the 
last verses in the 2d book of Chronicles, and the first verses 
in Ezra, they also are word for word alike, which shows that 
the Bible has been put together at random. 

But besides these things, there is great reason to believe we 
have been imposed upon, with respect to the antiquity of the 
Bible, and especially with respect to the books ascribed to 
Moses. Herodotus, who is called the father of history, and 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 267 

is the most ancient historian whose works have reached to our 
time, and who travelled into Egypt, conversed with the priests, 
historians, astronomers, and learned men of that country, for 
the purpose of obtaining all the information of it he could, and 
who gives an account of the ancient state of it, makes no men- 
tion of such a man as Moses, though the Bible makes him to 
have been the greatest hero there, nor of any one circumstance 
mentioned in the book of Exodus, respecting Egypt, such as 
turning the rivers into blood, the dust into lice, the death of 
the first born throughout all the land of Egypt, the passage of 
the Red-sea, the drowning of Pharaoh, and all his host, things 
which could not have been a secret in Egypt, and must have 
been generally known, had they been facts; and therefore as 
no such things were known in Egypt, nor any such man as 
Moses, at the time Herodotus was there, which is about two 
thousand two hundred years ago, It shows that the account of 
these things in the book ascribed to Moses is a made story 
of later times, that is, after the return of the Jews from the 
Babylonian captivity, and that Moses is not the author of the 
books ascribed to him. 

With respect to the cosmogony, or account of the creation 
in the first chapter of Genesis, of the Garden of Eden in the 
second chapter, and of what is called the fall of man in the 
third chapter, there is something concerning them we are not 
historically acquainted with. In none of the books of the 
Bible after Genesis, are any of these things mentioned, or even 
alluded to. How is this to be accounted for ? The obvious 
inference is, that either they were not known, or not believed 
to be facts, by the writers of the other books of the Bible, and 
that Moses is not the author of the chapters where these ac- 
counts are given. 

The next question on the case is, how did the Jews come 
by these notions, and at what time were they written ? 

To answer this question we must first consider what the 
state of the world was at the time the Jews began to be a 
people, for the Jews are but a modern race, compared with 
the antiquity of other nations. At the time there were, even 
by their own account, but thirteen Jews or Israelites in the 
world, Jacob and his twelve sons, and four of these were bas- 
tards. The nations of Egypt, Chaldea, Persia, and India, 
were great and populous, abounding in learning and science, 



268 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

particularly in - the knowledge of astronomy, of which the 
Jews were always ignorant. The chronological tables men- 
tion that eclipses were observed at Babylon above two thousand 
years before the Christian era, which was before there was a 
single Jew or Israelite in the world. 

All those ancient nations had their cosmogonies, that is, 
their accounts, how the creation was made, long before there 
were such people as Jews or Israelites. An account of these 
cosmogonies of India and Persia is given by Henry Lord, 
Chaplain to the East India Company, at Surat, and published 
in London in 1630. The writer of this has seen a copy of 
the edition of 1630, aud made extracts from it. The work, 
which is now scarce, was dedicated by Lord to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury. 

We know that the Jews were carried captives into Babylon 
by Nebuchadnezzar, and remained in captivity several years, 
when they were liberated by Cyrus, King of Persia. During 
their captivity they would have had an opportunity of ac- 
quiring some knowledge of the cosmogony of the Persians, or 
at least of getting some ideas how to fabricate one to put at 
the head of their own history after their return from captivity. 
This will account for the cause, for some cause there must 
have been, that no mention nor reference is made to the cos- 
mogony in Genesis in any of the books of the Bible, sup- 
posed to have been written before the captivity, nor is the 
name of Adam to be found in any of those books. 

The books of Chronicles were written after the return of 
the Jews from captivity, for the third chapter of the first book 
gives a list of all the Jewish kings, from David to Zedekiah, 
who was carried captive into Babylon, and to four generations 
beyond the time of Zedekiah. In the first verse of the first 
chapter of this book the name of Adam is mentioned, but not 
in any book in the Bible, written before that time, nor could 
it be, for Adam and Eve are names taken from the cosmogony 
of the Persians. Henry Lord, in his book, written from 
Surat, and dedicated, as I have already said, to the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, says that in the Persian cosmogony the name 
of the first man was Ad amok, and of the woman IlevaJi* 

* In an English edition of the Bible, in 1583, the first woman is 
called Hevah. — Editor of the Prospect. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 269 

From hence comes the Adam and Eve of the book of Gene- 
sis. In the cosmogony of India, of which I shall speak in a 
future number, the name of the first man was Pourous, and 
of the woman Parcoutee. We want a knowledge of the 
Sanscrit language of India to understand the meaning of the 
names, and I mentioned it in this place only to show that it 
is from the cosmogony of Persia rather than that of India, 
that the cosmogony in Genesis has been fabricated by the 
Jews, who returned from captivity by the liberality of Cyrus, 
King of Persia. There is, however, reason to conclude, on 
the authority of Sir William Jones, who resided several years 
in India, that these names were very expressive in the lan- 
guage to which they belonged, for, in speaking of this lan- 
guage, he says (see the Asiatic Researches), " The Sauscrit 
language, whatever be its antiquity, is of wonderful structure; 
it is more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, 
and more exquisitely refined than either." 

These hints, which are intended to be continued, will serve 
to show that a society for inquiring into the ancient state of 
the world, and the state of ancient history, so far as history 
is connected with systems of religion, ancient and modern, 
may become a useful and instructive institution. There is 
good reason to believe we have been in great error with re- 
spect to the antiquity of the Bible, as well as imposed upon 
by its contents. Truth ought to be the object of every man; 
for without truth there can be no real happiness to a thought- 
ful mind, or any assurance of happiness hereafter. It is the 
duty of man to obtain all the knowledge he can 7 and then 
make the best use of it. T. P. 



TO MR. MOORE, OF NEW YORK, 

COMMONLY CALLED 

BISHOP MOORE. 

I have read in the newspapers your account of the visit 
you made to the unfortunate General Hamilton, and of admi- 
nistering to him a ceremon} T of your church, which you call 
the Jioh/ communion. 



270 MISCELLANEOUS NECES. 

I regret the fate of General Hamilton, and I so far hope 
with you that it will be a warning to thoughtless man not to 
sport away the life that God has given him ; but with respect 
to other parts of your letter I think it very reprehensible, and 
betrays great ignorance of what true religion is. But you are 
a priest, you get your living by it, and it is not your worldly 
interest to undeceive yourself. 

After giving an account of your administering to the de- 
ceased what you call the Holy Communion, you add, " By 
reflecting on this melancholy event, let the humble believer 
be encouraged ever to hold fast that precious faith which is the 
only source of true consolation in the last extremity of nature. 
Let the infidel be persuaded to abandon his opposition to the 
Gospel/' 

To show you, sir, that your promise of consolation from 
scripture has no foundation to stand upon, I will cite to you 
one of the greatest falsehoods upon record, and which was 
given, as the record says, for the purpose, and as a promise of 
consolation. 

In the epistle called " the First Epistle of Paul to the Thes- 
salonians," (chap. 4) the writer consoles the Thessalonians as 
to the case of their friends who were already dead. He does 
this by informing them, and he does it he says, by the word 
of the Lord (a most notorious falsehood), that the general 
resurrection of the dead, and the ascension of the living, will 
be in his and their days; that their friends will then come to 
life again ; that the dead in Christ will rise first. — " Then we, 
(says he, v. 17) which are alive, and remain, shall be caught 
uj) together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the 
air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord — wherefore comfort 
one another with these words." 

Delusion and falsehood cannot be carried higher than they 
are in this passage. You, sir, are but a novice in the art. 
The words admit of no equivocation. The whole passage is 
in the first person and the present tense, " We which are alive" 
Had the writer meant a future time, and a distant generation, 
it must have been in the third person and the future tense, 
" They, who shall then be alive." I am thus particular for 
the purpose of nailing you down to the text, that you may 
not ramble from it, nor put other constructions upon the 
words than they will bear, which priests are very apt to do. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 271 

Now, sir, it is impossible for a serious man, to whom God has 
given the divine gift of reason, and who employs that reason 
to reverence and adore the G-od that gave it, it is, I say, im- 
possible for such a man to put confidence in a book that 
abounds with fable and falsehood, as the New Testament does. 
This passage is but a sample of what I could give you. 

You call on those whom you style "infidels/* (and they in 
return might call you an idolater, a worshipper of false gods, 
a preacher of false doctrine) " to abandon their opposition to 
the Gospel." Prove, sir, the Gospel to be true, and the op- 
position will cease of itself; but until you do this (which we 
know you cannot do), you have no right to expect they will 
notice yOur call. If by infidels you mean Deists (and you 
must be exceedingly ignorant of the origin of the word Deist,, 
and know but little of Deus, to put that construction upon 
it), you will find yourself over-matched if you begin to engage 
in a controversy with them. Priests may dispute with priests, 
and sectaries with sectaries, about the meaning of what they 
agree to call scripture, and end as they began • but when you 
engage with a Deist you must keep to fact. Now, sir, you 
cannot prove a single article of your religion to be true, and 
we tell you so publicly. Do it, if you can. The Deisfical 
article, the belief of a God, with which your creed begins, has 
been borrowed by your church from the ancient Deists, and 
even this article you dishonour by putting a dream-begotten 
phantom,* which you call his son, over his head, and treating 
God as if he was superannuated. Deisni is the only profes- 
sion of religion that admits of worshipping and reverencing 
God in purity, and the only one on which the thoughtful mind 
■can repose with undisturbed tranquillity. God is almost for- 
gotten in the Christian religion. Everything, even the creation, 
is ascribed to the son of Mary. 

In "religion, as in everything else, perfection consists in sim- 
plicity. The Christian religion of Gods within Gods, like 

* The first chapter of Matthew relates that Joseph, the betrothed 
husband of Mary, dreamed that an angel told him that his intended 
bride was with child by the Holy Ghost. It is not every husband, 
whether carpenter or priest, that can be so easily satisfied, for lo ! it 
was a dream. Whether Mary was in a dream when this was done we 
are not told. It is, however, a comical story. There is no woman 
living can understand it. 



272 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

wheels within wheels, is like a complicated machine, that never 
goes right, and every projector in the art of Christianity is 
trying to mend it. It is its defects that have caused such a 
number and variety of tinkers to be hammering at it, and still 
it goes wrong. In the visible world no time-keeper can go 
equally true with the sun; and in like manner, no complicated 
religion can be equally true with the pure and unmixed 
religion of Deism. 

Had you not offensively glanced at a description of men whom 
you call by a false name, you would not have been troubled 
nor honoured with this address ; neither has the writer of it 
any desire or intention to enter into controversy with you. He 
thinks the temporal establishment of your church politically 
unjust and offensively unfair; but with respect to religion 
itself, distinct from temporal establishments, he is happy in 
the enjoyment of his own, and he leaves you to make the best 
you can of yours. 

A Member oe the Deistical Church. 



TO JOHN MASON, 

One of the Ministers of the Scotch Presbyterian Church, of 
New York, with Remarks on his account of the visit he 
made to the late General Hamilton. 



" Come now, let us reason tor/ether, saith the Lord." This 
is one of the passages you quoted from your Bible, in your 
conversation with General Hamilton, as given in your letter 
signed with your name, and published in the Commercial 
Advertiser, and other New York papers, and I re-quote the 
passage to show that your Text and your Religion con- 
tradict each other. 

It is impossible to reason upon things not comprehensible by 
reason; and therefore, 'if you keep to your text, which priests 
seldom do (for they are generally cither above it, or below it, 
or forget it), you must admit a religion to which reason can 
apply, and this, certainly, is not the Christian religion. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 273 

There is not an article in the Christian religion that is 
cognisable by reason. The Deistical article of your religion, 
the belief of a God, is no more a Christian article than it is a 
Mahometan article. It is an universal article, common to all 
religions, and which is held in greater purity by Turks than 
by Christians j but the Deistical church is the only one which 
holds it in real purity j because that church acknowledges no 
co-partnership with God. It believes in him solely, and knows 
nothing of Sons, married Virgins, nor Ghosts. It holds all 
these things to be the fables of priestcraft. 

Why then do you talk of reason, or refer to it, since your 
religion has nothing to do with reason, nor reason with that ? 
You tell people, as you told Hamilton, that they must have 
faith ! Faith in what ? You ought to know that before the 
mind can have faith in anything, it must either know it as a 
fact, or see cause to believe it on the probability of that kind 
of evidence that is cognisable by reason : but your religion is 
not within either of these cases ; for, in the first place, you 
cannot prove it to be fact ; and in the second place, you can- 
not support it by reason, not only because it is not cognisable 
by reason, but because it is contrary to reason. What reason 
can there be in supposing, or believing, that God put himself 
to death, to satisfy himself and be revenged on the Devil on 
account of Adam ; for tell the story which way you will, it 
comes to this at last. 

As you can make no appeal to reason in support of an un- 
reasonable religion, you then (and others of your profession) 
bring yourselves off by telling people, they must not believe 
in reason, but in revelation. This is the artifice of habit with- 
out reflection. It is putting words in the place of things ; for 
do you not see, that when you tell people to believe in revela- 
tion you must first prove that what you call revelation, is 
revelation ; and as you cannot do this, you put the word which 
is easily spoken, in the place of the thing you cannot prove. 
You have no more evidence that your Gospel is revelation, 
than the Turks have that their Koran is revelation, and the 
only difference between them and you is, that they preach their 
delusion and you preach yours. 

In your conversation with General Hamilton, you say to 
him, "The simple truths of the Gospel, which require no 

VOL. i.— 18 



274 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

abstruse investigation, but faith in the veracity of God, who 
cannot lie, are best suited to your present condition." 

If those matters you call "simple truths" are what you call 
them, and require no abstruse investigation, they would be so 
obvious that reason would easily comprehend them ; yet the 
doctrine you preach at other times is, that the mysteries of the 
Gospel are beyond the reach of reason. If your first position 
be true, that they are simple truths, priests are unnecessary, 
for we do not want preachers to tell us the sun shines ; and if 
your second be true, the case, as to effect, is the same, for it 
is waste of money to pay a man to explain unexplainable 
things, and loss of time to listen to him. That God cannot lie, 
is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that 
priests cannot, or that the Bible does not. Did- not Paul lie 
when he told the Thessalonians that the general resurrection 
of the dead would be in his lifetime, and that he should go up 
alive along with them into the clouds to meet the Lord in the 
air ? 1 Thes. chap. 4, v. 17. 

You spoke of what you call " the precious blood of Christ." 
This savage style of language belongs to the priests of the 
Christian religion. The professors of this religion say they 
are shocked at the accounts of human sacrifices of which they 
read in the histories of some countries. Do they not see that 
their own religion is founded on a human sacrifice, the blood 
of man, of which their priests talk like so many butchers ? It 
is no wonder the Christian religion has been so bloody in its 
effects, for it began in blood, and many thousands of human 
sacrifices have since been offered on the altar of the Christian 
religion. 

It is necessary to the character of a religion, as being true, 
and immutable as God himself is, that the evidence of it be 
equally the same through all periods of time and circumstance. 
This is not the case with the Christian religion, nor with that 
of the Jews that preceded it (for there was a time, and that 
within the knowledge of history, when these religions did not 
exist), nor is it the case with any religion we know of but the 
religion of Deism. In this the evidences are eternal and 
universal. — " The heavens declare the glory of God, and the 
firmament showeth his handy work, — Day unto day uttereth 
speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge."* But all 

*This Tsalm (19) which is a Deistical Psalm, is so much in the 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 275 

other religions are made to arise from some local circumstance, 
and are introduced by some temporary trifle which its partisans 
call a miracle, but of which there is no proof but the story 
of it. 

The Jewish religion, according to the history of it, began 
in a wilderness, and the Christian religion in a stable. The 
Jewish books tell us of wonders exhibited upon Mount Sinai. 
It happened that nobody lived there to contradict the account. 
The Christian books tell us of a star that hung over the stable 
at the birth of Jesus. There is no star there now, nor any 
person living that saw it. But all the stars in the heavens 
bear eternal evidence to the truth of Deism. It did not begin 
in a stable, nor in a wilderness. It began everywhere. The 
theatre of the universe is the place of its birth. 

As adoration paid to any being but GOD himself is idolatry, 
the Christian religion by paying adoration to a man, born of 
a woman, called Mary, belongs to the idolatrous class of reli- 
gions, consequently the consolation drawn from it is delusion. 
Between you and your rival in communion ceremonies, Dr. 
Moore of the Episcopal church, you have, in order to make 
yourselves appear of some importance, reduced General Hamil- 
ton's character to that of a feeble-minded man, who, in going 
out of the world, wanted a passport from a priest. Which of 
you was first or last applied to for this purpose is a matter of 
no consequence. 

The man, sir, who puts his trust and confidence in God, 
that leads a just and moral life, and endeavours to do good, 
does not trouble himself about priests when his hour of de- 
parture comes, nor permit priests to trouble themselves about 
him. They are, in general, mischievous beings, where cha- 

manner of some parts of the book of Job, (which is not a book of the 
Jews, and does not belong to the Bible,) that it has the appearance of 
having been translated into Hebrew from the same language in which 
the book of Job was originally written, and brought by the Jews from 
Chaldea or Persia, when they returned from captivity. The contem- 
plation of the heavens made a great part of the religious devotion 
of the Chaldeans and Persians, and their religious festivals were regu- 
lated by the progress of the sun through the twelve signs of the Zodiac. 
But the Jews knew nothing about the Heavens, or they would not 
have told the foolish story of the sun's standing still upon a hill, 
and the moon in a valley. What could they want the moon for in 
the clay time ? 



276 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

racter is concerned ; a consultation of priests is worse than a 
consultation of physicians. 

A Member of the Deistical Congregation. 



ON DEISM AND THE WRITINGS OF THOMAS 
PAINE. 

The following reflections, written last winter, were occa- 
sioned by certain expressions in some of the public papers 
against Deism, and the "Writings of Thomas Paine on that 
subject. 

" Great is Diana of the Ephesifins" was the cry of the 
people of Ephesus;* and the cry of "our holy religion," has 
been the cry of superstition in some instances, and of hypo- 
crisy in others, from that day to this. 

The Brahmin, the follower of Zoroaster, the Jew, the Ma- 
hometan, the church of Rome, the Greek church, the protest- 
ant church, split into several hundred contradictory sectaries, 
preaching, in some instances, damnation against each other, 
all cry out, " our holy religion" The Calvinist, who damns 
children of a span long to hell to burn for ever for the glory 
of God (and this is called Christianity), and the universalist, 
who preaches that all shall be saved and none shall be damned 
(and this also is called Christianity), boast alike of their holy 
religion and their Christian faith. Something more, therefore, 
is necessary than mere cry and wholesale assertion, and that 
something is TRUTH ; and as inquiry is the road to truth, he 
that is opposed to inquiry is not a friend to truth. 

The God of Truth is not the God of fable; when, therefore, 
any book is introduced into the world as the word of God, and 
made a ground-work for religion, it ought to be scrutinized 
more than other books to see if it bear evidence of being what 
it is called. Our reverence to God demands that we do this, 
lest we ascribe to God what is not his, and our duty to our- 
selves demands it lest we take fable for fact, and rest our hope 
of salvation on a false foundation. It is not our calliDg a 
book holy that makes it so, any more than our calling a reli- 
gion holy that entitles it to the name. Inquiry, therefore, is 

*Acts, chap. xix. ver. 28. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 277 

necessary in order to arrive at truth. But inquiry must have 
some principle to proceed on, some standard to judge by, supe- 
rior to human authority. 

When we survey the works of creation, the revolutions of 
the planetary system, and the whole economy of what is called 
nature, which is no other than the laws the Creator has pre- 
scribed to matter, we see unerring order and universal har- 
mony reigning throughout the whole. No one part contradicts 
another. The sun does not run against the moon, nor the 
moon against the sun, nor the planets against each other. 
Everything keeps its appointed time and place. This harmony 
in the works of God is so obvious, that the farmer of the field, 
though he cannot calculate eclipses, is as sensible of it as the 
philosophical astronomer. He sees the God of order in every 
part of the visible universe. 

Here, then, is the standard to which everything must be 
brought that pretends to be the work or word of God, and by 
this standard it must be judged, independently of anything 
and everything that man can say or do. His opinion is like 
a feather in the scale compared with the standard that God 
himself has set up. 

It is, therefore, by this standard, that the Bible, and all 
other books pretending to be the word of God (and there are 
many of them in the world), must be judged, and not by the 
opinions of men, or the decrees of ecclesiastical councils. 
These have been so contradictory, that they have often re- 
jected in one council what they had voted to be the word of 
God in another ; and admitted what had been before rejected. 
In this state of uncertainty in which we are, and which is 
rendered still more uncertain by the numerous contradictory 
sectaries that have sprung up since the time of Luther and 
Calvin, what is man to do ? The answer is easy. Begin at 
the root — begin with the Bible itself. Examine it with the 
utmost strictness. It is our duty so to do. Compare the 
parts with each other, and the whole with the harmonious, 
magnificent order that reigns throughout the visible universe, 
and the result will be, that if the same almighty wisdom that 
created the universe, dictated also the Bible, the Bible will be 
as harmonious and as magnificent in all its parts, and in the 
whole, as the universe is. But if, instead of this, the parts 
are found to be discordant, contradicting in one place what is 
24 



278 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

said in another (as in 2 Sam. chap. xxiv. ver. 1, and 1 Chron. 
chap. xxi. ver. 1, where the same action is ascribed to God in 
one book and to Satan in the other), abounding also in idle 
and obscene stories, and representing the Almighty as a pas- 
sionate, whimsical Being, continually changing his mind, 
making and unmaking his own works as if he did not know 
what he was about, we may take it for certainty that the 
Creator of the universe is not the author of such a book, that 
it is not the word of God; and that to call it so is to dishonour 
his name. The Quakers, who are a people more moral and 
regular in their conduct than the people of other sectaries, and 
generally allowed so to be, do not hold the Bible to be the word 
of G-od. They call it a history of the times, and a bad history 
it is, and also a history of bad men and of bad actions, and 
abounding with bad examples. 

For several centuries past the dispute has been about doc- 
trines. It is now about fact. Is the Bible the word of God, 
or is it not ? for until this point is established, no doctrine 
drawn from the Bible can afford real consolation to man, and 
he ought to be careful he does not mistake delusion for truth. 
This is a case that concerns all men alike. 

There has always existed in Europe, and also in America, 
since its establishments, a numerous description of men (I do 
not here mean the Quakers), who did not, and do not believe 
the Bible to be the word of God, These men never formed 
themselves into an established society, but are to be found in 
all the sectaries that exist, and are more numerous than any, 
perhaps equal to all, and are daily increasing. From Beus, the 
Latin word for Grod, they have been denominated Deists, that 
is, believers in God. It is the most honourable appellation 
that can be given to man, because it is derived immediately 
from the Deity. It is not an artificial name like episcopalian, 
presbyterian, &c, but is a name of sacred signification, and to 
revile it, is to revile the name of God. 

Since then there is so much doubt and uncertainty about 
the Bible, some asserting, and others denying it to be the 
word of God, it is best that the whole matter come out. It 
is necessary, for the information of the world, that it should. 
A better time cannot offer than whilst the government, 
patronizing no one sect or opinion in preference to another, 
protects equally the rights of all; and certainly every man 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 279 

must spurn the idea of an ecclesiastical tyranny, engrossing 
the rights of the press, and holding it free only for itself. 

Whilst the terrors of the Church, and the tyranny of the 
State, hung like a pointed sword over Europe, men were com- 
manded to believe what the Church told them, or go to the 
stake. All inquiries into the authenticity of the Bible were 
shut out by the inquisition. We ought, therefore, to suspect 
that a great mass of information respecting the Bible, and the 
introduction of it into the world, has been suppressed by the 
united tyranny of Church and State, for the purpose of keep- 
ing people in ignorance, and which ought to be known. 

The Bible has been received by the protestants on the au- 
thority of the Church of Bome, and on no other authority. 
It is she that has said it is the word of God. We do not 
admit the authority of that church with respect to its pre- 
tended infallibility, its manufactured miracles, its setting 
itself up to forgive sins, its amphibious doctrine of transub- 
stantiation, &c. ; and we ought to be watchful with respect to 
any book introduced by her, or her ecclesiastical councils, and 
called by her the word of God ; and the more so, because it 
was by propagating that belief and supporting it by fire and fag- 
got, that she kept up her temporal power. That the belief of 
the Bible does no good in the world, may be seen by the irre- 
gular lives of those, as well priests as laymen, who profess to 
believe it to be the word of God, and the moral lives of the 
Quakers, who do not. It abounds with too many ill examples 
to be made a rule for moral life, and were a man to copy after 
the lives of some of its most celebrated characters, he would 
come to the gallows. 

Thomas Paine has written to show that the Bible is not the 
word of God, that the books it contains were not written by 
the persons to whom they are ascribed, that it is an anony- 
mous book, and that we have no authority for calling it the 
word of God, or for saying it was written by inspired penmen, 
since we do not know who the writers were. This is the opi- 
nion, not only of Thomas Paine, but of thousands and tens of 
thousands of the most respectable characters in the United 
States and in Europe. These men have the same right to 
their opinions as others have to contrary opinions, and the 
same right to publish them. Ecclesiastical tyranny is not ad- 
missible in the United States. 



280 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

With respect to morality, the writings of Thomas Paine are 
remarkable for purity and benevolence ; and though he often 
enlivens them with touches of wit and humour, he never loses 
sight of the real solemnity of his subject. No man's morals, 
either with respect to his Maker, himself, or his neighbour, 
can suffer by the writings of Thomas Paine. 

It is now too late to abuse Deism, especially in a country 
where the press is free, or where free presses can be established. 
It is a religion that has God for its patron, and derives its 
name from him. The thoughtful mind of man, wearied with 
the endless contentions of sectaries against sectaries, doctrines 
against doctrines, and priests against priests, finds its repose 
at last in the contemplative belief and worship of one God 
and the practice of morality, for as Pope wisely says, 

"He can't be wrong, whose life is in the right." 



OF THE BOOKS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 

Addressed to the Believers in the booh called the Scnpttires. 

The New Testament contains twenty-seven books, of which 
four are called Gospels ; one called the Acts of the Apostles ; 
fourteen called Epistles of Paul ; one of James ; two of 
Peter; three of John; one of Jude; and one called the Re- 
velation. 

None of those books have the appearance of being written 
by the persons whose names they bear, neither do we know 
who the authors were. They come to us on no other authority 
than the church of Rome, which the Protestant priests, espe- 
cially those of New England, called the whore of Babylon. 
This church appointed sundry councils to be held, to compose 
creeds for the people, and to regulate church affairs. Two of the 
principal of these councils were that of Nice and of Laoclicea 
(names of the places where the councils were held), about 
three hundred and fifty years after the time that Jesus is said 
to have lived. Before this time there was no such book as the 
New Testament. But the church could not well go on with- 
out having something to show, as the Persians showed the 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 281 

Zendavesta, revealed, they say, by God to Zoroaster ; the Bra- 
mins of India, the Shastcr, revealed, they say, by God to 
Brama, and given to him out of a dusky cloud; the Jews, 
the books they call the Law of Moses, given they say also out 
of a cloud on Mount Sinai \ the church set about forming a 
code for itself out of such materials as it could find or pick 
up. But where they got those materials, in what language 
they were written, or whose handwriting they were, or whe- 
ther they were originals or copies, or on what authority they 
stood, we know nothing of, nor does the New Testament tell 
us. The church was resolved to have a New Testament, and, 
as after the lapse of more than three hundred years, no hand- 
writing could be proved or disproved, the church, who, like 
former impostors, had then gotten possession of the state, had 
everything its own way. It invented creeds, such as that 
called the Apostle's Creed, the Nicean Creed, the Athanasian 
Creed, and out of the loads of rubbish that were presented, 
it voted four to be Gospels, and others to be^ Epistles, as we 
now find them arranged. 

Of those called Gospels above forty were presented, each 
pretending to be genuine. Four only were voted in, and en- 
titled the Gospel according to St. Matthew; the Gospel accord- 
ing to St. Mark; the Gospel according to St. Luke; the Gos- 
pel according to St. John. 

This word, — according, — shows that those books have not 
been written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but accord- 
ing to some accounts or traditions, picked up concerning them. 
The word according means agreeing with, and necessarily 
includes the idea of two things, or two persons. We cannot 
say, The Gospel written oy Matthew according to Matthew ; 
but we might say, the Gospel of some other person, according 
to what was reported to have been the opinion of Matthew. 
Now we do not know who those other persons were, nor whe- 
ther what they wrote accorded with anything that Matthew, 
Mark, Luke, and John might have said. There is too little 
evidence, and too much contrivance about those books to merit 
credit. 

The next book after those called Gospels, is that called the 

Acts of the Apostles. This book is anonymous ; neither do 

the councils that compiled or contrived the New Testament, 

tell us how they came by it. The church, to supply this de- 

24* 



282 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

feet, say it was written by Luke, which shows that the church 
and its priests have not compared that called the Gospel ac- 
cording to St. Luke, and the Acts together, for the two con- 
tradict each other. The Jbook of Luke, chap. 24, makes Jesus 
ascend into heaven the very same day that it makes him rise 
from the grave. The book of Acts, chap. i. v. 3, says, that 
he remained on the earth forty days after his crucifixion. 
There is no believing what either of them says. 

The next to the book of Acts is that entitled " The Epistle 
of Paul the Apostle* to the Romans. " This is not an epistle, 
or letter, written by Paul, or signed by him. It is an epistle, 
or letter, written by a person who signs himself Tertius, 
and sent, as it is said at the end, by a servant woman called 
Phebe. The last chapter, v. 22, says, " I, Tertius, who wrote 
this Epistle, salute you." Who Tertius or Phebe were we 
know nothing of. The epistle is not dated. The whole of it 
is written in the first person, and that person is Tertius, not 
Paul. But it suited the church to ascribe it to Paul. There 
is nothing in it that is interesting, except it be to contending 
and wrangling sectaries. The stupid metaphor of the potter 
and the clay is in the 9th chapter. 

The next book is entitled " The First Epistle of Paul the 
Apostle, to the Corinthians." This, like the former, is not 
an epistle written by Paul, nor signed by him. The conclu- 
sion of the epistle says, " The first epistle to the Corinthians 
was written from Philippi, by Stephanas, and Fortunatus, and 
Achaiacus, and Tiinotheus." The second epistle, entitled "The 
Second Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to the Corinthians," is 
in the same case with the first. The conclusion of it says, 
" It was written from Philippi, a city of Macedonia, by Titus 
and Lucas." 

A question may arise upon these cases, which is, are these 
persons the writers of the epistles originally, or are they the 
writers and attestors of copies sent to the councils who com- 
piled the code or canon of the New Testament ? If the epistles 

~* According to the criterion of the church, Paul was not an apostle : 
that appellation being given only to those called the twelve. Two 
sailors belonging to a man of war, got into a dispute \ipon this point, 
whether Paul was an apostle or not, and they agreed to refer it to the 
boatswain, who decided very ccuionically that Paul was an acting 
apostle but not rated. 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 283 

had been dated, this question could be decided j but in either 
of the cases the evidences of Paul's handwriting, and of their 
being written by him, is wanting, and therefore there is no 
authority for calling them Epistles of Paul. We know not 
whose epistles they were, nor whether they are genuine or 
forged. 

The next is entitled " The Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to 
the G-alatians." It contains six short chapters. But short as 
the epistle is, it does not carry the appearance of being the 
work or composition of one person. The fifth chapter, verse 
2, says, "If ye be circumcised, Christ shall avail you no- 
thing/' It does not say circumcision shall profit you nothing, 
but Christ shall profit you nothing. Yet in the sixth chap, 
ver. 15, it says, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision 
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature/' 
These are not reconcileable passages, nor can contrivance make 
them so. The conclusion of the epistle says, it was written 
from Rome, but it is not dated, nor is there any signature to 
it, neither do the compilers of the New Testament say how 
they came by it. We are in the dark upon all these matters. 

The next is entitled " The Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to 
the Ephesians." Paul is not the writer. The conclusion of 
it says, " Written from Rome, unto the Ephesians, by Tychi- 
cus." 

The next is entitled " The Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to 
the Philippians." Paul is not the writer. The conclusion of 
it says, "It 'was written to the Philippians from Rome, by 
Epaphroditus." It is not dated. Query, were those men who 
wrote and signed those epistles Journeymen Apostles, who 
undertook to write in Paul's name, as Paul is said to have 
preached in Christ's name ? 

The next is entitled " The Epistle of Paul the Apostle, to 
the Colossians." Paul is not the writer. Doctor Luke is 
spoken of in this Epistle as sending his compliments. " Luke, 
the beloved physican, and Demas, greet you." Chap, iv., v. 
14. It does not say a word about his writing any Gospel. 
The conclusion of the Epistle says, " Written from Rome to 
the Colossians, by Tychicus and Onesimus." 

The next is entitled " The first and the second Epistles of 
Paul the Apostle, to the Thessalonians." Either the writer 
of these Epistles was a visionary enthusiast, or a direct im- 



284 -MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

postor, for he tells the Thessalonians, and, he says, he tells 
them by the word of the Lord, that the world will be at an 
end in his and their time ; and after telling them that those 
who are already dead shall rise, he adds, chapter 4, v. 17, 
" Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up with 
them into the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall 
we be ever with the Lord/' Such detected lies as these ought 
to fill priests with confusion, when they preach such books to 
be the word of God. These two Epistles are said, in the con- 
clusion of them, to be written from Athens. They are with- 
out date or signatures. 

The next four Epistles are private letters. Two of them 
are to Timothy, one to Titus, and one to Philemon. Who 
they were, nobody knows. 

The first to Timothy is said to be written from Laodicea. 
It is without date or signature. The second to Timothy is 
said to be written from Rome, and is without date or signa- 
ture. The Epistle to Titus is said to be written from Nicopo- 
lis, in Macedonia. It is without date or signature. The 
Epistle to Philemon is said to be written from Rome, by 
Onesimus. It is without date. 

The last Epistle ascribed to Paul is entitled "The Epistle 
of Paul the Apostle, to the Hebrews," and is said, in the con- 
clusion, to be written from Italy, by Timothy. This Timothy 
(according to the conclusion of the Epistle called the second 
Epistle of Paul to Timothy) was bishop of the Church of 
the Ephesians, and consequently this is not an Epistle of 
Paul. 

On what slender cobweb evidence do the priests and pro- 
fessors of the Christian religion hang their faith ! The same 
degree of hearsay evidence, and that at third and fourth hand, 
would not, in a court of justice, give a man title to a cottage, 
and yet the priests of this profession presumptuously promise 
their deluded followers the kingdom of heaven. A little re- 
flection would teach men that those books are not to be trusted 
to ; that so far from there being any proof they are the word 
of God, it is unknown who the writers of them were, or at 
what time they were written, within three hundred years after 
the reputed authors are said to have lived. It is not the iute- 
rest of priests, who get their living by them, to examine into 
the insufficiency of the evidence upon which those books were 



v MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 285 

received by the popish councils who compiled the New Testa- 
ment. 

The cry of the priests, that the Church is in danger, is the 
cry of men who do not understand the interest of their own 
craft, for instead of exciting alarms and apprehensions for its 
safety, as they expect, it excites suspicion that the foundation 
is not sound, and that it is necessary to take down and build 
it on a surer foundation. Nobody fears for the safety of a 
mountain, but a hillock of sand may be washed away I Blow 
then, ye priests, " the Trumpet in Zion," for the Hillock is 
in danger. 

Detector — P. 



COMMUNICATION. 

The church tells us that the books of the Old and New Tes- 
tament, are divine revelation, and without this revelation we 
could not have true ideas of God. 

The Deist, on the contrary, says, that those books are not 
divine revelation, and that were it not for the light of reason, 
and the religion of Deism, those books, instead of teaching us 
true' ideas of God, would teach us not only false but blasphe- 
mous ideas of him. 

Deism teaches us that God is a God of truth and justice. 
Does the Bible teach the same doctrine ? It does not. 

The Bible says, (Jeremiah, chap. 20, verses 5, 7,) that God 
is a deceiver. "0 Lord (says Jeremiah), thou hast deceived 
me, and I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I, and hast 
prevailed." 

Jeremiah not only upbraids God with deceiving Mm, but 
in chap. 4, verse 9, he upbraids God with deceiving the people 
of Jerusalem. " Ah ! Lord God, (says he,) surely thou hast 
greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ye shall 
have peace, whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul." 

In chap. 15, verse 8, the Bible becomes more impudent, 
and calls God, in plain language, a liar. "Wilt thou, (says 
Jeremiah to God,) be altogether unto me as a liar and as waters 
that fail?" 



286 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

Ezekiel, chap. 14, verse 9, makes God to say — "If the 
prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord 
have deceived that prophet." All this is downright blas- 
phemy. 

The prophet Micaiah, as he is called, 2 Chron. chap. 18, 
verse 18, tells another blasphemous story of God. — " I saw, 
says he, the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the hosts of 
heaven standing on his right hand and on his left. And the 
Lord said, who shall entice Ahab, king of Israel, to go up and 
fall at Ramoth Gilead ? And one spoke after this manner, 
and another after that manner. Then there came out a spirit 
(Micaiah does not tell us where he came from) and stood 
before the Lord, (what an impudent fellow this spirit was), 
and said, I will entice him. And the Lord said unto him, 
wherewith ? and he said, I will go out and be a lying spirit 
in the mouth of all his prophets. And the Lord said, Thou 
shalt entice him, and thou shalt also prevail ; go out and do 
even so." 

We often hear of a gang of thieves plotting to rob and murder 
a man, and laying a plan to entice him out that they may 
execute their design, and we always feel shocked at the wicked- 
ness of such wretches ; but what must we think of a book 
that describes the Almighty acting in the same manner, and 
laying plans in heaven to entrap and ruin mankind. Our 
ideas of his justice and goodness forbid us to believe such 
stories, and, therefore, we say that a lying spirit has been in 
the mouth of the writers of the books of the Bible. 

T. P. 



TO THE EDITOR OF THE PROSPECT. 

In addition to the judicious remarks in your 12th number, 
on the absurd story of Noah's flood, in the 7th chapter of 
Genesis, I send you the following : 

The second verse makes God to say unto Noah, " Of every 
clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his 
female, and of every beast that are not clean, by two, the 
male and his female.''' 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 287 

Now, there was no such thing as beasts clean and unclean 
in the time of Noah. Neither were there any such people as 
Jews or Israelites at that time, to whom that distinction was a 
law. The law, called the law of Moses, by which a distinc- 
tion is made, beasts clean and unclean, was not until several 
hundred years after the time that Noah is said to have lived. 
The story, therefore, detects itself, because the inventor forgot 
himself, by making Grod make use of an expression that could 
not be used at the time. The blunder is of the same kind, as 
if a man in telling a story about America, a hundred years 
ago, should quote an expression from Mr. Jefferson's inaugural 
speech, as if spoken by him at that time. 

My opinion of this story is the same as what a man once 
said to another, who asked him in a drawling tone of voice, 
u Do you believe the account about No-ah V The other replied 
in the same tone of voice, aJi-no. T. P. 



RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.* 



The following publication, which has appeared in several 
. newspapers in different parts of the United States, shows in 
the most striking manner, the character and effects of reli- 
gious fanaticism, and to what extravagant lengths it will 
carry its unruly and destructive operations. We give it a 
place in the Prospect, because we think the perusal of it 
will be gratifying to our subscribers ; and, because, by ex- 
posing the true character of such frantic zeal, we hope to 
produce some influence upon the reason of man, and induce 
him to rise superior to such dreadful illusions. The judi- 

*-It becomes necessary to insert Mr. Scott's letter, for the due un- 
derstanding of the comments made upon it, by Mr. Paine. It Las 
also in itself much interest, as exhibiting a true picture of the awful 
condition in which priestcraft has involved human nature, by incul- 
cating "the doctrines of our fallen state by nature, and the way of 
recovering through Christ." A more childish and besotted dogma, I 
will venture to say, was never taught in the most barbarous nation 
that ever existed in the world. — Editor. 



288 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

cious remarks at the end of this account were communicated 
to us by a very intelligent and faithful friend to the cause 
of Deism. 

Extract from a Letter of the Rev. George Scott, of Mill Creek, 
Washington County, Pennsylvania, to Col. William McFar- 
ren, of Mount Bethel, Northampton County, Pa., dated 
November 3, 1802. 

My Dear Friend, 

"We have wonderful times here. God has been pleased to 
visit this barren corner with abundance of his grace. The 
work began in a neighbouring congregation, at a sacramental 
occasion, about the last of September. It did not make its 
appearance in my congregation till the first Tuesday of October. 
After society in the night, there appeared an evident stir 
among the young people, but nothing of the appearance of 
what appeared afterwards. On Saturday evening following, 
we had society, but it was dull throughout. On Sabbath-day 
one cried out, but nothing else extraordinary appeared. That 
evening I went part of the way to the Raccoon congregation, 
when the sacrament of the supper was administered ; but on 
Monday morning a very strong impression of duty constrained 
me to return to my congregation in the Flats, when the work 
was begun. We met in the afternoon at the meeting-house, 
where we had a warm society. In the evening we removed 
to a neighbouring house, where we continued in society till 
midnight ; numbers were falling all the time of the society. — 
After the people were dismissed, a considerable number staid 
and sung hymns, till perhaps two o'clock in the morning, 
when the work began to the astonishment of all. Only five 
or six were left able to take care of the rest, to the number 
perhaps of near forty. — They fell in all directions, on benches, 
on beds, and on the floor. Next morning the people began to 
flock in from all quarters. One girl came early in the morn- 
ing, but did not get within one hundred yards of the house, 
before she fell powerless, and was carried in. T »Ve could not 
leave the house, and, therefore, continued society all that day 
and all that night, and on Wednesday morning, I was obliged 
to leave a number of them on the spot. On Thursday even- 
ing we met again, when the work was amazing; about twenty 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 289 

persons lay to all appearance dead for near two and a half 
hours, and a great number cried out with sore distress. — Fri- 
day, I preached at Mill Creek. Here nothing appeared more 
than an unusual solemnity. That evening we had society, 
where great numbers were brought under conviction, but none 
fell. On Sabbath-day I preached at Mill Creek. This day 
and evening was a very solemn time, but none fell. On Mon- 
day I went to attend presbytery, but returned on Thursday 
evening to the Flats, where society was appointed, when num- 
bers were struck down. On Saturday evening we had society, 
and a very solemn time — about a dozen persons lay dead three 
and a half hours by the watch. On Sabbath a number fell, 
and we were obliged to continue all night in society, as we had 
done every evening we had met before. On Monday, a Mr. 
Hughes preached at' Mill Creek, but nothing extraordinary 
appeared, only a great deal of falling. We concluded to divide 
that evening into two societies, in order to accommodate the 
people. Mr. H. attended the one and I the other. Nothing 
strange appeared where Mr. H. attended ) but where I 
attended, G-od was present in the most wonderful manner. 
I believe there was not one present but was more or less 
affected. A considerable number fell powerless, and two 
or three, after lying some time, recovered with joy, and spoke 
near half an hour. One, especially, declared in a surprising 
manner the wonderful view she had of the person, character, 
and offices of Christ, with such accuracy of language, that I 
was astonished to hear it. Surely this must be the work of 
God ! On Thursday evening we had a lively society, but not 
much falling down. On Saturday, we all went to the Cross 
Roads, and attended a sacrament. Here were, perhaps, about 
4000 people collected. The weather was uncomfortable ; on 
the Sabbath-day it rained, and on Monday it snowed. We had 
thirteen ministers present. The exercises began on Saturday, 
and continued on night and day with little or no intermission. 
Great numbers fell ; to speak within bounds, there were up- 
wards of 150 down at one time, and some of them continued 
three or four' hours with but little appearance of life. Numbers 
came to, rejoicing, while others were deeply distressed. — The 
scene was wonderful ; the cries of the distressed, and the 
agonizing groans, gave some faint representation of the awful 
cries and the bitter screams which will, no doubt, be extorted 
vol. t. — 25 



290 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

from the damned in bell. But what is to me the most sur- 
prising, of those who have been subjects among my people 
with whom I have conversed, but three had any terrors of hell 
during their exercise. The principal cry is, how long have 
I rejected Christ ! how often have I embrued my hands in 
his precious blood ! how often have I waded through his 
precious blood by stilling conviction ! this dreadful hard 
heart ! what a dreadful monster sin is ! It was my sin that 
nailed Jesus to the cross, &c. 

The preaching is various; some thunder the terrors of the 
law — others preach the mild invitation of the gospel. For 
my part, since the work began, I have confined myself chiefly 
to the doctrines of our fallen state by nature, and the way of 
recovery through Christ ; opening the way of salvation : show- 
ing how Grod can be just and yet be the justifier of them that 
believe, and also the nature of true faith and repentance ; 
pointing out the difference between true and false religion, and 
urging the invitations of the gospel in the most engaging man- 
ner that I am master of, without any strokes of terror. The 
convictions and cries appear to be, perhaps, nearly equal under 
all these different modes of preaching, but it appears rather 
most, when we preach on the fulness and freeness of salvation. 



REMARKS BY MR. PAINE. 

In the fifth chapter of Mark, we read a strange story of 
the Devil getting into swine after he had been turned out of a 
man, and as the freaks of the Devil in that story and the 
tumble-down descriptions in this are very much alike, the two 
stories ought to go together. 

" And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into 
the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out 
of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man 
with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the 
tombs ; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: 
because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, 
and the chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fet- 
ters broken in pieces; neither could any man tame him. And 



MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 291 

always night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the 
tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones. But when he 
saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, and cried with 
a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou 
son of the most high God ? I adjure thee by God, that thou 
torment me not. (For he said unto him, Come out of the 
man, thou unclean spirit.) And he asked him, "What is thy 
name ? and he answered, saying, My name is Legion : for we 
are many. And he besought him much that he would not 
send them away out of the country. Now there was there, 
nigh unto the mountains, a great herd of swine feeding. And 
all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, 
that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave 
them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered 
into the swine ; and the herd ran down violently a steep place 
into the sea (they were about two thousand), and were choked 
in the sea." 

The force of the imagination is capable of producing strange 
effects. — When animal magnetism began in France, which was 
while Doctor Franklin was minister to that country, the won- 
derful accounts given of the wonderful effects it produced on 
the persons who were under the operation, exceeded anything 
related in the foregoing letter from Washington County. 
They tumbled down, fell into trances, roared and rolled about 
like persons supposed to be bewitched. The government, in 
order to ascertain the fact, or detect the imposition, appointed 
a committee of physicians to inquire into the case, and 
Doctor Franklin was requested to accompany them, which 
he did. 

The committee went into the operator's house, and the per- 
sons on whom an operation was to be performed, were 
assembled. They were placed in the position in which they 
had been when under former operations, and blind-folded. In 
a little time they began to show signs of agitation, and in the 
space of about two hours they went through all the frantic 
airs they had shown before ; but the case was, that no opera- 
tion was performing upon them, neither was the operator in 
the room, for he had been ordered out of it by the physicians ; 
but as the persons did not know this, they supposed him pre- 
sent and operating upon them. It was the effect of imagina- 
tion only. Doctor Franklin in relating this account to the 



292 MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. 

writer of this article, said, that he thought the government 
might as well have let it gone on, for that as imagination 
sometimes produced disorders, it might also cure some. It is 
fortunate, however, that this falling down and crying out 
scene did not happen in New England a century ago, for if it 
had the preachers would have been hung for witchcraft, and in 
more ancient times the poor falling down folks would have 
been supposed to be possessed of a devil, like the man in Mark, 
among the tombs. The progress that reason and Deism make 
in the world, lessens the force of superstition, and abates the 
spirit of persecution. 



END OF THE THEOLOGICAL WORKS. 



THOMAS PAINE'S LETTERS TO 
WASHINGTON. 



Paris, August 3, 1796. 

As censure is but awkwardly softened by apology, I shall 
offer you no apology for this letter. The eventful crisis, to 
which your double politics have conducted the affairs of your 
country, requires an investigation uncramped by ceremony. 

There was a time when the fame of America, moral and 
political, stood fair and high in the world. The lustre of her 
revolution extended itself to every individual, and to be a 
citizen of America, gave a title to respect in Europe. Neither 
meanness nor ingratitude had been mingled in the composition 
of her character. Her resistance to the attempted tyranny of 
England left her unsuspected of the one, and her open 
acknowledgment of the aid she received from France precluded 
all suspicion of the other. The politics of Washington had 
not then appeared. 

At the time I left America (April, 1787) the continental 
convention, that formed the federal constitution, was on the 
point of meeting. Since that time new schemes of politics, 
and new distinction of parties, have arisen. The term anti- 
federalist has been applied to all those who combated the de- 
fects of that constitution, or opposed the measures of your 
administration. It was only to the absolute necessity of 
establishing some federal authority, extending equally over all 
the states, that an instrument so inconsistent as the present 
federal constitution is, obtained a suffrage. I would have 
voted for it mvself, had I been in America, or even for a worse, 
£5 * " (293) 



294 paine's letters 

rather than have had none ; provided it contained the means 
of remedying its defects by the same appeal to the people, by 
which it was to be established. It is always better policy to 
leave removable errors to expose themselves, than to hazard 
too much in contending against them theoretically. 

I have introduced these observations not only to mark the 
general difference between the anti-federalist and anti-consti- 
tutionalist, but to preclude the effect, and even the application, 
of the former of these terms to myself. I declare myself op- 
posed to several matters in the constitution, particularly to the 
manner in which what is called the executive-is formed, and 
to the long duration of the senate; and if I live to return to 
America, I will use all my endeavours to have them altered. 
I also declare myself opposed to almost the whole of your ad- 
ministration ; for I know it to have been deceitful, if not per- 
fidious, as I shall show in the course of this letter. But as to 
the point of consolidating the states into a federal govern- 
ment, it so happens that the proposition for that purpose came 
originally from myself. I proposed it in a letter to Chancellor 
Livingston in the spring of the year 1782, while that gentle- 
man was minister for foreign affairs. The five per cent, duty 
recommended by Congress had then fallen through, having 
been adopted by some of the states, altered by others, rejected 
by Rhode Island, and repealed by Virginia, after it had been 
consented to. The proposal in the letter I allude to, was to 
get over the whole difficulty at once, by annexing a continental 
legislative body to Congress; for in order to have any law of 
the Union uniform, the case could only be, that either Congress 
as it then stood, must frame the law, and the states severally 
adopt it without alteration, or, the states must elect a conti- 
nental legislature for the purpose. Chancellor Livingston, 
Robert Morris, Gouverneur Morris, and myself, had a meeting 
at the house of Robert Morris on the subject of that letter. 
There was no diversity of opinion on the proposition for a con- 
tinental legislature : the only difficulty was on the manner of 
bringing the proposition forward. For my own part, as I con- 
sidered it as a remedy in reserve, that could be applied at any 
time, when the states saw themselves wrong enoiigh to be "put 
right (which did not appear to be the case at that time), I did 
not see the propriety of urging it precipitately, and declined 
being the publisher of it myself. After this account of a 



TO WASHINGTON. 295 

fact, the leaders of your party will scarcely Lave the hardiness 
to apply to me the term of anti-federalist. But I can go to a 
date and to a fact beyond this, for the proposition for electing 
a continental convention to form a continental government is 
one of the subjects treated of in the pamphlet "' Common 
Sense." 

Having thus cleared away a little of the rubbish that might 
otherwise have lain in my way, I return to the point of time 
at which the present federal constitution and your administra- 
tion began. It was very well said by an anonymous writer in 
Philadelphia, about a year before that period, that, u thirteen 
staves and ne'er a hoop loill not make a barrel ;" and as any 
kind of hooping the barrel, however defectively executed, 
would be better than none, it was scarcely possible but that 
considerable advantages must arise from the federal hooping of 
the states. It was with pleasure that every sincere friend to 
America beheld as the natural effect of union, her rising pros- 
perity, and it was with grief they saw that prosperity mixed, 
even in the blossom, with the germ of corruption. Monopo- 
lies of every kind marked your administration almost in the mo- 
ment of its commencement. The lands obtained by the revo- 
lution were lavished upon partisans ; the interest of the dis- 
banded soldier was sold to the speculator; injustice was acted 
under the pretence of faith ; and the chief of the army became 
the patron of the fraud. From such a beginning what else 
could be expected, than what has happened ? A mean and 
servile submission to the insults of one nation; treachery and 
ingratitude to another. 

Some vices make their approach with such a splendid ap- 
pearance, that we scarcely know to what class of moral dis- 
tinctions they belong : they are rather virtues corrupted than 
vices originally. But meanness and ingratitude have nothing 
equivocal in their character. There is not a trait in them 
that renders them doubtful. They are so originally vice, that 
they are generated in the dung of other vices, and crawl into 
existence with the filth upon their back. The fugitives have 
found protection in you, and the levee-room is their place of 
rendezvous. 

As the federal constitution is a copy, though not quite so 
base as the original, of the form of the British government, an 
imitation of its vices was naturally to be expected. So inti- 
mate is the connexion between form and practice that to adopt 



296 paine's letters 

the one is to invite the other. Imitation is naturally progres- 
sive, and is rapidly so in matters that are vicious. 

Soon after the federal constitution arrived in England, I 
received a letter from a female literary correspondent (a na- 
tive of New York) very well mixed with friendship, sentiment, 
and politics. In my answer to that letter, I permitted myself 
to ramble into the wilderness of imagination, and to anticipate 
what might hereafter be the condition of America. I had no 
idea that the picture I then drew was realizing so fast, and 
still less that Mr. Washington was hurrying it on. As the 
extract I allude to is congenial with the subject I am upon, I 
here transcribe it : — 

" You touch me on a very tender point when you say that 
my friends on your side of the water cannot be reconciled to 
the idea of my abandoning America even for my native Eng- 
land. They are right. I had rather see my horse, Button, 
eating the grass of Bordentown, or Morrissania, than see all 
the pomp and show of Europe. 

" A thousand years hence, for I must indulge a few thoughts, 
perhaps in less, America may be what England now is. The 
innocence of her character, that won the hearts of all nations 
in her favour, may sound like a romance, and her inimitable 
virtue as if it had never been. The ruins of that liberty, which 
thousands bled to obtain, may just furnish materials for a vil- 
lage tale, or extort a sigh from rustic sensibility; while the 
fashionable of that day, enveloped in dissipation, shall deride 
the principle, and deny the fact ! 

"When we contemplate the fall of empires, and the extinc- 
tion of the nations of the ancient world, we see but little more 
to excite our regret than the mouldering ruins of pompous pa- 
laces, magnificent monuments, lofty pyramids, and wajiprand 
towers of the most costly workmanship : but when the empire 
of America shall fall, the subject of contemplated sorrow will 
be infinitely greater than crumbling brass or marble can in- 
spire. It will not then be said, Here stood a temple of vast 
antiquity, here rose a Babel of invisible height, or there a pa- 
lace of sumptuous magnificence; but here, ah, painful thought ! 
the noblest work of human wisdom, the greatest scene of hu- 
man glory, the fair cause of freedom, rose and fell : read this, 
and then ask if I forget America 1" 

Impressed as I was, with apprehension of this kind, I had 



TO WASHINGTON. 297 

America constantly in my mind in all the publications I after- 
ward made. The first, and still more, the second part of the 
" Eights of Man," bear evident marks of this watchfulness ; 
and the dissertations on first principles of government goes 
more directly to the point than either of the former. I now 
pass on to the other subjects. 

It will be supposed by those into whose hands this letter 
may fall, that I have some personal resentment against you : 
and I will therefore settle this point before I proceed farther. 

If I have any resentment, you must acknowledge that I have 
not been hasty in declaring it, neither would it now be de- 
clared (for what are private resentments to the public) if the 
cause of it did not unite itself as well with your public as with 
your private character, and with the motives of your political 
conduct. 

The part I acted in the American revolution is well known. 
I shall not here repeat it. I know also, that had it not been 
for the aid received from France, in men, money, and ships, 
your cold and unmilitary conduct (as I shall show in the 
course of this letter) would in all possibility have lost America; 
at least she would not have been the independent nation she 
now is. You slept away your time in the field, till the finances 
of the country were completely exhausted, and you have but 
little share in the glory of the final event. It is time, sir, to 
speak the undisguised language of historical truth. 

Elevated to the chair of t the presidency, you assumed the 
merit of everything to yourself; and the natural ingratitude 
of your constitution began to appear. You commenced your 
presidential career by encouraging and swallowing the grossest 
adulation; and you travelled America from one end to the 
other to put yourself in the way of receiving it. You have as 
many addresses in your chest as James II. As to what were 
your views, for if you are not great enough to have ambition, 
you are little enough to have vanity, they cannot be directly 
inferred from expressions of your own ; but the partisans of 
your politics have divulged the secret. 

John Adams has said (and John it is known was always a 
speller after places and offices, and never thought his little 
services were highly enough paid) — John has said, that as 
Mr. Washington had no child, the presidency should be made 
hereditary in the family of Lund Washington. John might 



298 paine's letters 

then have counted upon some sinecure for himself, and a pro- 
vision for his descendants. He did not go so far as to say 
also, that the vice- presidency should be hereditary in the 
family of John Adams. He prudently left that to stand upon 
the ground that one good turn deserves another.* 

John Adams is one of those men who never contemplated 
the origin of government, or comprehended anything of first 
principles. If he had, he might have seen, that the right to 
set up and establish hereditary government never did, and 
never can, exist in any generation at any time whatever ) that 
it is of the nature of treason, because it is an attempt to take 
away the rights of all the minors living at that time, and of 
all succeeding generations. It is of a degree beyond common 
treason ; it is a sin against nature. The equal rights of gene- 
rations is a right fixed in the nature of things, it belongs to 
the son when of age, as it belonged to the father before him. 
John Adams would himself deny the right that any former 
deceased generation could have to decree authoritatively a 
succession of governors over him or over his children, and yet 
he assumes a pretended right, treasonable as it is ; of acting it 
himself. His ignorance is his best excuse. 

John Jay has said (and this John was always the sycophant 
of everything in power, from Mr. Girard in America, to 
G-renville in England) — John Jay has said, that the senate 
should have been appointed for life. He would then have 
been sure of never wanting a lucrative appointment for him- 
self, and have had no fears about impeachment. These are 
the disguised traitors that call themselves federalists. f 

Could I have known to what degree of corruption and per- 
fidy the administrative part of the government of America 
had descended, I could have been at no loss to have under- 
stood the reservedness of Mr. Washington toward me during 
my imprisonment in the Luxembourg. There are cases in 
which silence is a loud language. I will here explain the 
cause of that imprisonment, and return to Mr. Washington 
afterward. 



* Two persons to whom John Adams said this, told me of it. The 
secretary of Mr. Jay was present when it was told to me. 

_f If Mr. John Jay desires to know on what authority I say this, I 
will give that authority publicly when he chooses to call* for it. 



TO WASHINGTON. 299 

In the course of that rage, terror, and suspicion, which the 
brutal letter of the Duke of Brunswick first started into ex- 
istence in France, it happened that almost eve*y man who was 
opposed to violence, or who was not violent himself, became 
suspected. I had constantly been opposed to everything 
which was of the nature, or of the appearance of violence" 
but as I had always done it in a manner that showed it to be 
a principle founded in my heart, and not a political manoeuvre, 
it precluded the pretence of accusing me. I was reached how- 
ever under another pretence. 

A decree was passed to imprison all persons born in Eng- 
land j but as I was a member of the convention, and had been 
complimented with the honorary style of citizen of France, as 
Mr. Washington and some other Americans have been, this 
decree fell short of reaching me. A motion was afterward 
made and carried, supported chiefly by Bourdon de l'Oise, for 
expelling foreigners from the convention. My expulsion being 
thus effected, the two committees of public safety and of 
general surety, of which Robespierre was the dictator, put me 
in arrestation under the former decree for imprisoning persons 
born in England. Having thus shown under what pretence 
the imprisonment was effected, I come to speak of such parts 
of the case as apply between me and Mr. Washington, either 
as a president, or as an individual. 

I have always considered that a foreigner, such as I was in 
fact, with respect to France, might be a member of a conven- 
tion for framing a constitution, without affecting his right of 
citizenship, in the country to which he belongs, but not a 
member of a government after a constitution is formed ; and 
I have uniformly acted upon this distinction. To be a mem- 
ber of a government requires a person being in allegiance 
with that government and to the country locally. But a con- 
stitution, being a thing of principle, and not of action, and 
which after it is formed, is to be referred to the people for 
their approbation or rejection does not require allegiance in 
the persons forming and proposing it; and beside this, it is 
only to the thing after it is formed and established, and to the 
country after its governmental character is fixed by the adop- 
tion of a constitution, that the allegiance can be given. No 
oath of allegiance or of citizenship was required of the mem- 
bers who composed the convention : there was nothing exist- 



300 paine's letters 

ing in form to swear allegiance to. If any such condition had 
been required, I could not, as a citizen of America in fact, 
though citizemof France by compliment, have accepted a seat 
in the convention. 

As my citizenship in America was not altered or diminished 
by anything I had done in Europe (on the contrary, it ought 
to have been considered as strengthened, for it was the Ame- 
rican principle of government that I was endeavouring to 
spread in Europe), and as it is the duty of every government 
to charge itself with the care of any of its citizens who may 
happen to fall under an arbitrary persecution abroad, and this 
is also one of the reasons for which ambassadors or ministers 
are appointed, it was the duty of the executive department in 
America to have made, at least some inquiries about me, as 
soon as it heard of my imprisonment. But if this had not 
been the case, that government owed it to me on every ground 
of honour and gratitude. Mr. Washington owed it to me on 
every score of private acquaintance, I will not now say friend- 
ship; for it has some time been known by those who know 
him, that he has no friendships, that he is incapable of form- 
ing any; he can serve or desert a man, or a cause, with con- 
stitutional indifference ; and it is this cold hermaphrodite 
faculty that imposed itself upon the world, and was credited a 
while by enemies, as by friends, for prudence, moderation, and 
impartiality. 

Soon after I was put into arrestation and imprisoned in the 
Luxembourg, the Americans who were then in Paris, went in 
a body to the bar of the convention to reclaim me. They 
were answered by the then president Vadier, who has since 
absconded, that I was born in England, and it was signified 
to them, by some of the committee of general surety, to whom 
they were referred (I have been told it was Billaud Varennes), 
that their reclamation of me was only the act of individuals, 
without any authority from the American government. 

A few days after this, all communication between persons 
imprisoned, and any person without the prison, was cut off by 
an order of the police. I neither saw nor heard from any 
person for six months; and the only hope that remained to 
me was, that a new minister would arrive from America to 
supersede Morris, and that he would be authorized to inquire 
into the cause of my imprisonment; but even this hope, in 



TO WASHINGTON. 301 

the state to which matters were daily arriving, was too remote 
to have any consolatory effect, and I contented myself with 
the thought that I might be remembered when it would be too 
late. There is perhaps no condition from which a man, con- 
scious of his own uprightness, cannot derive consolation; for 
it is in itself a consolation for him to find, that he can bear 
that condition with calmness and fortitude. 

From about the middle of March (1794) to the fall of Ro- 
bespierre, July 29 (9th of Thermidor), the state of things in 
the prisons was a continued scene of horror. No man could 
count upon life for twenty hours. To such a pitch of rage 
and suspicion were Robespierre and his committee arrived, 
that it seemed as if they feared to leave a man to live. 
Scarcely a night passed in which ten, twenty, thirty, forty, 
fifty, or more, were not taken out of the prison, carried before 
a pretended tribunal in the morning, and guillotined before 
night. One hundred and sixty-nine were taken out of the 
Luxembourg one night, in the month of July, and one hundred 
and sixty of them guillotined. A list of two hundred more, 
according to the report in the prison, was preparing a few 
days before Robespierre fell. In this last list I have good 
reason to believe I was included. A memorandum in the 
handwriting of Robespierre was afterward produced in the 
convention, by the committee to whom the papers of Robes- 
pierre were referred, in these words : — 
" Demander que Thomas Paine soit decrete d'accusation pour 

Tinteret de l'Amerique, autant que de la France."* 

I had been imprisoned seven months, and the silence of the 
executive part of the government of America (Mr. Washing- 
ton) upon the case, and upon everything respecting me, was 
explanation enough to Robespierre that he might proceed to 
extremities. 

A violent fever which had nearly terminated my existence,' 
was, I believe, the circumstance that preserved it. I was not 
in a condition to be removed, or to know of what was passing, 
or of what had passed, for more than a month. It makes a 
blank in my remembrance of life. The first thing I was in- 
formed of was the fall of Robespierre. 

About a week after this, Mr. Monroe arrived to supersede 

* "Demand that Thomas Paine be decreed of accusation for the 
interest of America, as well as of France." 
VOL, I. — 2(3 



302 paine's letters 

Gouverneur Morris, and as soon as I was able to write a note 
legible enough to be read, I found a way to convey one to him 
hj means of the man who lighted the lamps in the prison; 
and whose unabated friendship to me, from whom he had 
never received any service, and with difficulty accepted any 
recompense, puts the character of Mr. Washington to shame. 

In a few days I received a message from Mr. Monroe, con- 
veyed to me in a note from an intermediate person, with 
assurance of his friendship, and expressing the desire that I 
would rest the case in his hands. After a fortnight or more 
had passed, and hearing nothing farther, I wrote to a friend 
who was then in Paris, a citizen of Philadelphia, requesting 
him to inform me what was the true situation of things with 
respect to me. I was sure that something was the matter; I 
began to have hard thoughts of Mr. Washington, but I was 
unwilling to encourage them. 

In about ten days I received an answer to my letter, in 
which the writer says, " Mr. Monroe has told me that he has 
no order (meaning from the president, Mr. Washington) re- 
specting you, but that he (Mr. Monroe) will do everything in 
his power to liberate you; bat, from what I learn from the 
Americans lately arrived in Paris, you are not considered, 
either by the American government, or by individuals, as an 
American citizen." 

I was now at no loss to understand Mr. Washington and his 
new-fangled motion, and that the policy was silently to leave 
me to fall in France. They were rushing as fast as they could 
venture, without awakening the jealousy of America, into all 
the vices and corruptions of the British government; and it 
was no more consistent with the policy of Mr. Washington, 
and those who immediately surrounded him, than it was with 
that of Kobespierre or of Pitt, that I should survive. — They 
have, however, missed the mark, and the reaction is upon 
themselves. 

Upon the receipt of the letter just alluded to, I sent a 
memorial to Mr. Monroe, which the reader will find in the 
appendix, and I received from him the following answer. It 
is dated the 18th of September, but did not come to hand till 
about the 18th of October. I was then falling into a relapse, 
the weather was becoming damp and cold, fuel was not to be 
had, and the abscess in my side, the consequence of those 



TO WASHINGTON. 303 

things, and of want of air and exercise, was beginning to form, 
and has continued immoveable ever since. Here follows Mr. 
Monroe's letter. 

"Paris, September 18, 1794. 

" Dear Sir : I was favoured, soon after my arrival here, 
with several letters from you, and more latterly with one in 
the character of a memorial upon the subject of your confine- 
ment: and should have answered them at the times they were 
respectively written, had I not concluded, you would have 
calculated with certainty upon the deep interest I take in your 
welfare, and the pleasure with which I shall embrace every 
opportunity in my power to serve you. I should still pursue 
the same course, and for reasons which must obviously occur, 
if I did not find that you are disquieted with apprehensions 
upon interesting points, and which justice to you and our 
country equally forbid you should entertain. You mention 
that you have been informed you are not considered as an 
American citizen by the Americans, and that you have like- 
wise heard that I had no instructions respecting you by the 
government. I doubt not the person who gave you the infor- 
mation meant well, but I suspect he did not even convey 
accurately his own ideas on the first point : for I presume the 
most he could say is, that you had likewise become a French 
citizen, and which by no means deprives you of being an 
American one. Even this, however, may be doubted, I mean 
the acquisition of citizenship in France, and I confess you 
have said much to show that it has not been made. I really 
suspect that this was all that the gentleman who wrote to you, 
and those Americans he heard speak upon the subject, meant. 
It becomes my duty, however, to declare to you, that I con- 
sider you as an American citizen, and that you are considered 
universally in that character by the people of America. As 
such you are entitled to my attention ; and so far as it can be 
given consistently with those obligations which are mutual 
between every government and even transient passenger, you 
shall receive it. 

" The Congress have never decided upon the subject of 
citizenship, in a manner to regard the present case. By being 
with us through the revolution, you are of our country as ab- 
solutely as if you had been born there, and you are no more 
of England than every native American is. This is the true 



304 paine's letters 

doctrine in the present case, so far as it becomes complicated 
with any other consideration. I have mentioned it to make 
you easy upon the only point which could give you any dis- 
quietude. 

" It is necessary for me to tell you, how much all your 
countrymen — I speak of the great mass of the people — are in- 
terested in your welfare. They have not forgotten the history 
of their own revolution, and the difficult scenes through which 
they passed; nor do they review its several stages without 
reviving in their bosoms a due sensibility of the merits of 
those who served them in that great and arduous conflict. The 
crime of ingratitude has not yet stained, and I trust never 
will stain, our national character. You are considered by 
them, as not only having rendered important services in our 
own revolution, but as being, on a more extensive scale, the 
friend of human rights, and a distinguished and able advocate 
in favour of public liberty. To the welfare of Thomas Paine, 
the Americans are not, nor can they be, indifferent. 

" Of the sense which the President has always entertained 
of your merits, and of his friendly disposition toward you, 
you are too well assured, to require any declaration of it from 
me. That I forward his wishes in seeking your safety is 
what I well know : and this will form an additional obligation 
on me to perform what I should otherwise consider as a 
duty. 

" You are in my opinion, at present, menaced by no kind 
of danger. To liberate you will be an object of my endea- 
vours, and as soon as possible. But you must, until that 
event shall be accomplished, bear your situation with patience 
and fortitude; you will likewise have the justice to recollect, 
that I am placed here upon a difficult theatre, many important 
objects to attend to, and with few to consult. It becomes me 
in pursuit of those, to regulate my conduct with respect to 
each, as to the manner and the time, as will, in my judgment, 
be best calculated to accomplish the whole. 

"With great esteem and respect consider me personally 
your friend. "James Monroe." 

The part of Mr. Monroe's letter, in which he speaks of the 
President (Mr. Washington), is put in soft language. Mr. 
Monroe knew what Mr. Washington had said formerly, and 



TO WASHINGTON. 305 

lie was willing to keep that in view. But the fact is, not only 
that Mr. Washington had given no orders to Mr. Monroe, as 
the letter stated; but he did not so much as say to him, "In- 
quire if Mr. Paine be dead or alive, in prison or out, or see 
if there be any assistance we can give him." 

While these matters were passing, the liberations from the 
prisons were numerous; from twenty to forty in the course 
of almost every twenty-four hours. The continuance of my 
imprisonment after a new minister had arrived immediately 
from America, which was now more than two months, was a 
matter so obviously strange, that I found the character of the 
American government spoken of in very unqualified terms of 
reproach • not only by those who still remained in prison, but 
by those who were liberated, and by persons who had access 
to the prison from without. Under these circumstances, I 
wrote again to Mr. Monroe, and found occasion to say, among 
other things, " It will not add to the popularity of Mr. Wash- 
ington, to have it believed in America, as it is believed here 
— that he connives at my imprisonment." 

The case, so far as it respected Mr. Monroe, was, that 
having to get over the difficulties which the strange conduct 
of Gouverneur Morris had put in the way of a successor, and 
having no authority from the American government, to speak 
officially upon anything relating to me, he found himself 
obliged to proceed by unofficial means with individual members ; 
for though Robespierre was overthrown, the Robespierrean 
members of the committee of public safety still remained in 
considerable force, and had they found out that Mr. Monroe 
had no official authority upon the case, they would have paid 
little or no regard to his reclamation of me. In the mean- 
time, my health was suffering exceedingly, the dreary prospect 
of winter was coming on \ and imprisonment was still a thing 
of danger. After the Robespierrean members of the com- 
mittee were removed, by the expiration of their time of serving, 
Mr. Monroe reclaimed me, and I was liberated the 4th of 
November. Mr. Monroe arrived in Paris the beginning of 
August before. All that period of my imprisonment, at least, 
I owe not to Robespierre, but to his colleague in projects, 
G-eorge Washington. Immediately upon my liberation, Mr. 
Monroe invited me to his house, where I remained more than 
a year and a half; and I speak of his aid and friendship, as 
26* 



306 paine's letters 

an open-hearted man will always do in such a case, with 
respect and gratitude. 

Soon after my liberation the convention passed a unanimous 
vote, to invite me to return to my seat among them. The 
times were still unsettled and dangerous, as well from without 
as within, for the coalition was unbroken, and the constitution 
not settled. I chose, however, to accept the invitation ; for as 
I undertake nothing but what I believe to be right, I abandon 
nothing that I undertake; and I was willing also to show, 
that, as I was not of a cast of mind to be -deterred by pros- 
pects or retrospects of danger, so neither were my principles 
to be weakened by misfortune or perverted by disgust. 

Being now once more abroad in the world, I began to find 
that I was not the only one who had conceived an unfavourable 
opinion of Mr. Washington ; it was evident that his character 
was on the decline as well among Americans as among for- 
eigners of different nations. From being the chief of the 
government, he had made himself the chief of a party; and 
his integrity was questioned, for his politics had a doubtful 
appearance. The mission of Mr. Jay to London, notwith- 
standing there was an American minister there already, had 
then taken place, and was beginning to be talked of. It ap- 
peared to others, as it did to me, to be enveloped in mystery, 
which every day served either to increase or to explain into 
matter of suspicion. 

In the year 1790, or about that time, Mr. Washington, as 
president, had sent Gouverneur Morris to London, as his se- 
cret agent, to have some communication with the British 
ministry. To cover the agency of Morris it was given out, I 
know not by whom, that he went as an agent from Robert 
Morris to borrow money in Europe, and the report was per- 
mitted to pass uncontradicted. The event of Mr. Morris's 
negotiation was, that Mr. Hammond was sent minister from 
England to America, Pinckney from America to England, and 
himself minister to France. If, while Morris was minister in 
France, he was not an emissary of the British ministry and 
the coalesced powers, he gave strong reason to be suspected 
of it. No one who saw his conduct, and heard his conversa- 
tion, could doubt his being in their interest; and had he not 
got off at the time he did, after his recall, he would have been 
in arrestation. Some letters of his had fallen into the hands 



TO WASHINGTON. 307 

of the committee of public safety, and inquiry was making 
after him. 

A great bustle had been made by Mr. Washington about 
the conduct of Genet in America, while that of his own minis- 
ter, Morris, in France, was infinitely more reproachable. If 
Genet was imprudent or rash, he was not treacherous ; but 
Morris was all three. He was the enemy of the French revo- 
lution, in every stage of it. But notwithstanding this conduct 
on the part of Morris and the known profligacy of his charac- 
ter, Mr. Washington, in a letter he wrote to him at the time 
of recalling him on the complaint and request of the committee 
of public safety, assures him, that though he had complied 
with that request, he still retained the same esteem and friend- 
ship for him as before. This letter Morris was foolish enough 
to tell of; and, as his own character and conduct were noto- 
rious, the telling of it could have but one effect, which was 
that of implicating the character of the writer. Morris still 
loiters in Europe, chiefly in England ; and Mr. Washington is 
still in correspondence with him. Mr. Washington ought, 
therefore, to expect, especially since his conduct in the affair 
of Jay's treaty, that France must consider Morris and Wash- 
ington as men of the same description. The chief difference, 
however, between the two is (for in politics there is none), 
that the one is profligate enough to profess an indifference 
about moral principles, and the other is prudent enough to 
conceal the want of them. 

About three months after I was at liberty, the official note 
of Jay to Grenville on the subject of the capture of American 
vessels by British cruisers, appeared in the American papers 
that arrived at Paris. Everything was of a piece — everything 
was mean. The same kind of character went to all circum- 
stances public or private. Disgusted at this national degrada- 
tion, as well as at the particular conduct of Mr. Washington 
to me., I wrote to him (Mr. Washington) on the 22d of Feb- 
ruary, 1795, under cover to the then secretary of state (Mr. 
Randolph), and intrusted the letter to M. Letombe, who was 
appointed French consul to Philadelphia, and was on the point 
of taking his departure. When I supposed M. Letombe had 
sailed, I mentioned the letter to Mr. Monroe, and as I was 
then in his house, I showed it to him. He expressed a wish 
that I would recall it, which he supposed might be done, as he 



308 paine's letters 

had learned that M. Letombe had not then sailed. I agreed 
to do so, and it was returned by M. Letombe under cover to 
Mr. Monroe. The letter will, however, now reach Mr. Wash- 
ington publicly in the course of this work. 

About the month of September following, I had a severe re- 
lapse, which gave occasion to the report of my death. I had 
felt it coming on a considerable time before, which occasioned 
me to hasten the work I had then on hand, " The second part 
of the Age of Reason" When I had finished the work, I be- 
stowed another letter on Mr. Washington, which I sent under 
cover to Mr. Franklin Bache of Philadelphia. The letter was 
as follows : — 

" TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 
STATES. 

" Paris, 'Sept. 20, 1795. 

" Sir : I had written you a letter by M. Letombe, French 
consul, but, at the request of Mr. Monroe, I withdrew it, and 
the letter is still by me. I was the more easily prevailed upon 
to do this, as it was then my intention to have returned to 
America the latter end of the present year; but the illness I 
now suffer prevents me. In case I had come, I should have 
applied to you for such parts of your official letters (and your 
private ones, if you had chosen to give them), as contained 
any instructions or directions either to Mr. Monroe, or to Mr. 
Morris, or to any other person, respecting me ; for after you 
were informed of my imprisonment in France, it was incum- 
bent on you to have made some inquiry into the cause, as you 
might very well conclude that I had not the opportunity of 
informing you of it. I cannot understand your silence upon 
this subject upon any other ground than as connivance at my 
imprisonment- and this is the manner it is understood here, 
and will be understood in America, unless you will give me 
authority for contradicting it. I therefore write you this let- 
ter, to propose to you to send me copies of any letters you 
have written, that I may remove this suspicion. In the pre- 
face to " Second Part of the Age of Reason," I have given a 
memorandum from the handwriting of Robespierre, in which 
he proposed a decree of accusation against me, " for the inte- 
rest of America, as well as of France." He could have no 



TO WASHINGTON. 809 

cause for putting America in the case, but by interpreting the 
silence of the American government into connivance and con- 
sent. I was imprisoned on the ground of being born in Eng- 
land ; and your silence in not inquiring the cause of that im- 
prisonment, and reclaiming me against it, was tacitly giving 
me up. I ought not to have suspected you of treachery \ but 
whether I recover from the illness I now suffer or not, I shall 
continue to think you treacherous, till you give me cause to 
think otherwise. I am sure you would have found yourself 
more at your ease, had you acted by me as you ought- for 
whether your desertion of me was intended to gratify the 
English government, or to let me fall into destruction in 
France, that you might exclaim the louder against the French 
revolution ; or whether you hoped by my extinction to meet 
with less opposition in mounting up the American government \ 
either of these will involve you in reproach you will not easily 
shake off. " Thomas Paine." 

The ivithdrawn Letter alluded to in the above. 

"TO GEORGE WASHINGTON, PRESIDENT OE THE UNITED 

STATES. 

"Paris, Feb. 22, 1795. 

i' Sir : As it is always painful to reproach those one would 
wish to respect, it is not without some difficulty I have taken 
the resolution to write to you. The danger to which I have 
been exposed cannot have been unknown to you, and the 
guarded silence you have observed upon that circumstance is 
what I ought not to have expected from you, either as a friend 
or as President of the United States. 

"You knew enough of my character to be assured that I 
could not have deserved imprisonment in France; and with- 
out knowing anything more than this, you had sufficient 
ground to have taken some interest for my safety. Every 
motive arising from recollection ought to have suggested to 
you the consistency of such a measure. But I cannot find 
that you have so much as directed any inquiry to be made 
whether I was in prison or at liberty, dead or alive ; what the 
cause of that imprisonment was, or whether there was any 
service or assistance you could render. Is this what I ought 
to have expected from America, after the part I have acted 



310 paine's letters 

toward her ? Or will it redound to her honour or yours, that 
I tell the story? I do not hesitate to say, that you have not 
served America with more fidelity, or greater zeal, or more dis- 
interestedness than myself, and perhaps not with better effect. 
After the revolution of America had been established, you 
rested at home to partake its advantages, and I ventured into 
new scenes of difficulty to extend the principles which that 
revolution had produced. In the progress of events, you be- 
held yourself a President in America, and me a prisoner in 
France ; you folded your arms, forgot your friend, and became 
silent. 

" As everything I have been doing in Europe was connected 
with my wishes for the prosperity of America, I ought to be 
the more surprised at this conduct on the part of her govern- 
ment. It leaves me but one mode of explanation, which is, 
that everything is not as it ought to be among you, and that 
the presence of a man who might disapprove, and who had 
credit enough with the country to be heard and believed, was 
not wished for. This was the operating motive with the 
despotic faction that imprisoned me in France (though the 
pretence was that I was a foreigner), and those that have been 
silent and inactive toward me in America, appear to me to 
have acted from the same motive. It is impossible for me to 
discover any other. 

"After the part I have taken in the revolution of America, 
it is natural that I feel interested in whatever relates to her 
character and prosperity. Though I am not on the spot to see 
what is immediately acting there, I see some part of what she 
is acting in Europe. For your own sake, as well as for that 
of America, I was both surprised and concerned at the ap- 
pointment of G-ouverneur Morris to be minister to France. His 
conduct has proved that the opinion I had formed of that ap- 
pointment was well founded. I wrote that opinion to Mr. 
Jefferson at the time, and I was frank enough to say the same 
thing to Morris, that it was an unfortunate appointment. His 
prating, insignificant pomposity rendered him at once offen- 
sive, suspected, and ridiculous; and his total neglect of all 
business had so disgusted the Americans, that they proposed 
drawing up a protest against him. He carried this neglect to 
such an extreme, that it was necessary to inform him of it; 
and I asked him one day, if he did not feel himself ashamed 



TO WASHINGTON. 311 

to take tlie money of the country and do nothing for it ; but 
Morris is so fond of profit and voluptuousness, that h# cares 
nothing about character. Had he not been removed at the 
time he was, I think his conduct would have precipitated the 
two countries into a rupture ; and in this case, hated systematic- 
ally as America is, and ever will be, by the British govern- 
ment, and at the same time suspected by France, the commerce 
of America would have fallen a prey to both. 

" If the inconsistent conduct of Morris exposed the interest 
of America to some hazard in France, the pusillanimous con- 
duct of Mr. Jay in England has rendered the American govern- 
ment contemptible in Europe. Is it possible that any man, 
who has contributed to the independence of America, and to 
free her from the tyranny and injustice of the British govern- 
ment, can read without shame and indignation the note of Jay 
to Grenville ? It is a satire upon the declaration of independ- 
ence, and an encouragement to the British government to 
treat America with contempt. At the time this minister of 
petitions was acting this miserable part, he had every means 
in his hands to enable him to have done his business as he 
onght. The success or failure of his mission depended upon 
the success or failure of the French arms. Had France failed, 
Mr. Jay might have put his humble petition in his pocket and 
gone home. The case happened to be otherwise, and he has 
sacrificed the honour, and perhaps the advantage of it, by turn- 
ing petitioner. I take it for granted, that he was sent over to 
demand indemnification for the captured property; and, in 
this case, if he thought he wanted a preamble to his demand, 
he might have said, that, ' though the government of England 
might suppose itself under the necessity of seizing American 
property bound to France, yet that supposed necessity could 
not preclude indemnification to the proprietors, who, acting 
under the authority of their own government, were not ac- 
countable to any other.' But Mr. Jay sets out with an implied 
recognition of the right of the British government to seize and 
condemn; for he enters his complaint against the irregularity 
of the seizures, and the condemnation, as if they were repre- 
hensible only by not being conformable to the terms of the 
proclamation under which they were seized. Instead of being 
the envoy of a government, he goes over like a lawyer to de- 
mand a new trial. I can hardly help thinking but that Gren- 



312 paine's letter 

ville wrote that note himself, and Jay signed it; for the style 
of it is domestic and not diplomatic. The term his majesty, 
used without any descriptive epithet, always signifies the king 
whom the minister represents. If this sinking of the demand 
into a petition was a juggle between G-ren ville and Jay to cover 
the indemnification, I think it will end in another juggle, that 
of never paying the money ; and he made use of afterward to 
preclude the right of demanding it : for Mr. Jay has virtually 
disowned the right by appealing to the magnanimity of his 
majesty against the capturers. He has made this magnanimous 
majesty umpire in the case, and the government of the United 
States must abide by the decision. If, sir, I turn some part 
of this business into ridicule, it is to avoid the unpleasant sen- 
sation of serious indignation. 

" Among other things which I confess I do not understand, 
is your proclamation of neutrality. — This has always appeared 
to me as an assumption on the part of the executive. But 
passing this over as a disputable case, and considering it only 
as political, the consequence has been that of sustaining the 
losses of war, without the balance of reprisals. When the pro- 
fession of neutrality, on the part of America, was answered 
by hostilities on the part of Britain, the object and inten- 
tion of that neutrality existed no longer; and to maintain it 
after this, was not only to encourage farther insults and de- 
predations, but was an informal breach of neutrality toward 
France, by passively contributing to the aid of her enemy. 
That the government of England considered the American 
government as pusillanimous, is evident from the increasing 
insolence of the conduct of the former toward the latter, till 
the affair of General Wayne. She then saw that it might be 
possible to kick a government into some degree of spirit. So 
far as the proclamation of neutrality was intended to prevent 
a dissolute spirit of privateering in America under foreign 
colours, it was undoubtedly laudable; but to continue it as a 
government neutrality, after the commerce of America was 
made war upon, was submission, and not neutrality. — I have 
heard so much about this thing called neutrality, that I know 
not if the ungenerous and dishonourable silence (for I must 
call it such) that has been observed by your part of the govern- 
ment toward me during my imprisonment, has not in some 
measure arisen from that policy. 



TO WASHINGTON. 313 

" Though I have written you this letter, you ought not to sup- 
pose it has been an agreeable undertaking to me. On the con- 
trary, I assure you it has cost me some disquietude. I am 
sorry you have given me cause to do it ; for, as I have always 
remembered your former friendship with pleasure, I suffer a 
loss by your depriving me of that sentiment. 

" Thomas Paine." 

That this letter was not written in very good temper, is 
very evident; but it was just such a letter as his conduct ap- 
peared to me to merit, and everything on his part since has 
served to confirm that opinion. Had I wanted a commentary 
on his silence, with respect to my imprisonment in France, 
some of his faction have furnished me with it. What I here 
allude to, is a publication in a Philadelphia paper, copied after- 
ward into a New York paper, both under the patronage of the 
Washington faction, in which the writer, still supposing me in 
prison in France, wonders at my lengthy respite from the 
scaffold. And he marks his politics still farther, by saying : 
" It appears, moreover, that the people of England did not rel- 
ish his [Thomas Paine' s] opinions quite as well as he expected; 
and that for one of his last pieces, as destructive to the peace 
and happiness of their country (meaning, I suppose, the 
' Riyhts of m&n'J, they threatened our knight-errant with 
such serious vengeance that, to avoid a trip to Botany Bay, 
he fled over to France as a less dangerous voyage." 

I am not refuting or contradicting the falsehood of this pub* 
lication, for it is sufficiently notorious, neither am I censuring 
the writer, on the contrary, I thank him for the explanation 
he has incautiously given of the principles of the Washington 
faction. Insignificant, however, as the piece is, it was capable 
of having some ill effects, had it arrived in France during my 
imprisonment, and in the time of Robespierre; and I am un* 
charitable in supposing that this was one of the intentions of 
the writer.* 

I have now done with Mr. Washington on the score of pri- 

* I know not who the writer of this piece is, but some late Ameri- 
cans say it is Phineas Bond, an American refugee, and now a British 
consul; and that he writes under the signature of Peter Skunk, or 
Peter Porcupine (Cobbett), or some such signature. 

vol. i. — 27 



314 paine's letters 

vate affairs. It would have been far more agreeable to me, 
had his conduct been such as not to have merited these re- 
proaches. Errors or caprices of temper can be pardoned and 
forgotten ; but a cold deliberate crime of the heart, such as 
Mr. Washington is capable of acting, is not to be washed away. 
— I now proceed to other matter. 

After Jay's note to Grenville arrived in Paris from America, 
the character of everything that was to follow might be easily 
foreseen ; and it was upon this anticipation that my letter of 
February the twenty-second was founded. The event has 
proved that I was not mistaken, except that it had been much 
worse than I expected. 

It would naturally occur to Mr. Washington, that the secrecy 
of Jay's mission to England, where there was already an Ame- 
rican minister, could not but create some suspicion in the 
French government, especially as the conduct of Morris had 
been notorious, and the intimacy of Mr. Washington with Mor- 
ris was known. 

The character which Mr. Yfashington has attempted to act 
in the world, is a sort of non-describable chameleon-coloured 
thing called prudence. It is, in many cases, a substitute for 
principle, and is so nearly allied to hypocrisy, that it easily 
slides into it. His genius for prudence furnished him, in this 
instance, with an expedient that served (as is the natural and 
general character of all expedients) to diminish the embar- 
rassment of the moment, and multiply them afterward; for he- 
caused it to be announced to the French government as a con- 
fidential matter (Mr. Washington should recollect that I was 
a member of the convention, and had the means of knowing 
what I here state) — he caused it, I say, to be announced, and 
that for the purpose of preventing any uneasiness to the French, 
on the score of Mr. Jay's mission to England, that the object 
of that mission, and Mr. Jay's authority, were restricted to 
the demanding of the surrender of the western posts, and in- 
demnification for the cargoes captured in American vessels. 
— Mr. Washington knows tlrat this was untrue; and knowing 
this, he had good reason, to himself, for refusing to furnish 
the house of representatives with copies of the instructions 
given to Jay, as he irrght suspect, among other things, that 
he should be also called upon for copies of instructions given 
to other ministers, and that in the contradiction of instructions 



• TO WASHINGTON. 315 

hi want of integrity would be detected. Mr. "Washington 
may now perhaps learn, when it is too late to be of any use to 
him, that a man will pass better through the world with a 
thousand open errors upon his back, than in being detected in 
one sly falsehood. When one is detected, a thousand more 
are suspected. 

The first account that arrived in Paris of a treaty being ne- 
gotiated by Mr Jay (for nobody suspected any) came in an 
English newspaper, which announced that a treaty, offensive 
and defensive, had been concluded, between the United States 
of America and England. This was immediately denied by 
every American in Paris, as an impossible thing; and though 
it was disbelieved by the French, it imprinted a suspicion that 
some underhand business was going forward. At last the 
treaty itself arrived, and every well-affected American blushed 
with shame. 

It is curious to observe how the appearances of characters 
will change, while the root that produces them remains the 
same. The Washington faction having waded through the 
slough of negotiation, and while it amused France with pro- 
fessions of friendship contrived to injure her, immediately 
throws off the hypocrite and assumes the swaggering air of a 
bravado. The party papers of that imbecile administration 
were on this occasion filled with paragraphs about sovereignty. 
A poltron may boast of his sovereign right to let another kick 
him, and this is the only kind of sovereignty shown in the 
treaty with England. But those dashing paragraphs, as Timo- 
thy Pickering well knows, were intended for France, without 
whose assistance, in men, money, and ships, Mr. Washington 
would have cut but a poor figure in the American war. But of 
his military talents I shall speak hereafter. 

I mean not to enter into any discussion of any article of 
Jay's treaty ; I shall speak only upon the whole of it. It is 
attempted to be justified on the ground of its not being a vio- 
lation of any article or articles of the treaty pre-existing with 
France. But the sovereign right of explanation does not lie 
with G-eorge Washington and his man Timothy; France, on 
her part, has, at least, an equal right : and when nations dis- 
pute, it is not so much about words as about things. 

A man, such as the world calls a sharper, as versed as Jay 
must be supposed to be in the quibbles of the law, may find 



316 paine's letters 

a way to enter into engagements, and make bargains, in such 
a manner as to cheat some other party, without that party 
being able, as the phrase is, to take the law of him. This often 
happens in the cabalistical circle of what is called law. But 
when this is attempted to be acted on the national scale of 
treaties, it is too despicable to be defended, or to be permitted 
to exist. Yet this is the trick upon which Jay's treaty is 
founded, so far as it has relation to the treaty pre-existing with 
France. It is a counter-treaty to that treaty, and perverts all 
the great articles of that treaty to the injury of France, and 
makes them operate as a bounty to England, with whom 
France is at war. The Washington administration shows 
great desire that the treaty between France and the United 
States be preserved. Nobody can doubt its sincerity upon 
this matter. There is not a British minister, a British mer- 
chant, or a British agent or factor, in America, that does not 
anxiously wish the same thing. The treaty with France serves 
now as a passport to supply P]ngland with naval stores, and 
other articles of American produce ; while the same articles, 
when coming to France, are made contraband, or seizable, by 
Jay's treaty with England. The treaty with France says, 
that neutral ships make neutral property, and thereby gives 
protection to English property on board American ships ) and 
Jay's treaty delivers up French property on board American 
ships to be seized by the English. It is too paltry to talk of 
faith, of national honour, and of the preservation of treaties, 
while such a barefaced treachery as this stares the world in the 
face. 

The Washington administration may save itself the trouble 
of proving to the French government its most faithful inten- 
tions of preserving the treaty with France ; for France has 
now no desire that it should be preserved; she had nominated 
an envoy extraordinary to America, to make Mr. Washington 
and his government a present of the treaty, and to have no 
more to do with that or with him. It was at the same time 
officially declared to the American minister at Paris, that the 
French republic had rather have the American government for 
an open enemy than a treacherous friend. This, sir, together 
with the internal distractions caused in America, and the loss 
of character in the world, is the eventful crisis alluded to in 
the beginning of this letter, to which your double politics 



TO WASHINGTON. 317 

have brought the affairs of your country. It is time that the 
eyes of America be opened upon you. 

How France could have conducted herself toward America, 
and American commerce, after all treaty stipulations had ceased, 
and under the sense of services rendered, and injuries received, 
I know not. It is, however, an unpleasant reflection, that in 
all national quarrels, the innocent, and even the friendly part 
of the community, become involved with the culpable and the 
unfriendly; and as the accounts that arrived from America 
continued to manifest an invariable attachment, in the general 
mass of the people, to their original ally, in opposition to the 
new-fangled Washington faction, the revolutions that had been 
taken in France were suspended. It happened also, fortu- 
nately enough, that G-ouverneur Morris was not minister at this 
time. 

There is, however, one point that yet remains in embryo, 
and which, among other things, serves to show the igno- 
rance of the Washington treaty-makers, and their inattention 
to pre-existing treaties, when they were employing themselves 
in framing or ratifying the new treaty with England. 

The second article of the treaty of commerce between the 
United States and France says : " The most Christian king 
and the United States engage mutually not to grant any par- 
ticular favour to any other nations, in respect to commerce 
and navigation, that shall not immediately become common to 
the other party, who shall enjoy the same favour freely, if the 
concession was freely made, or on allowing the same compen- 
sation if the concession was conditional. " 

All the concessions, therefore, made to England by Jay's 
treaty are, through the medium of this second article in the 
pre-existing treaty, made to France, and become engrafted 
into the treaty with France, and can be exercised by her as a 
matter of right, the same as by England. 

Jay's treaty makes a concession to England, and that un- 
conditionally, of seizing naval stores in American ships, and 
condemning them as contraband. It makes also a concession 
to England to seize provisions and other articles in American 
ships. Other articles, are all other articles; and none but an 
ignoramus, or something worse, would have put such a phrase 
into a treaty. The condition annexed to this case is, that the 
provisions and other articles so seized are to be paid for at a 
27* 



318 paine's letteus 

price to be agreed upon. Mr. Washington, as President, 
ratified this treaty after he knew the British government had 
recommenced an indiscriminate seizure of provisions, and of 
all other articles in American ships; and it is now known that 
those seizures were made to fit out the expedition going to 
Quiberon Bay, and it was known beforehand that they would 
be made. The evidence goes also a good way to prove that 
Jay and Grenville understood each other upon that subject. 
Mr. Pinckney, When he passed through France in his way to 
Spain, spoke of the recommencement of the seizures as a thing 
that would take place. The French government had by some 
means received information from Loudon to the same pur- 
pose, with the addition that the recommencement of the seiz- 
ures would cause no misunderstanding between the British 
and American governments. Grenville, in defending himself 
against the opposition in Parliament, on account of the scarcity 
of corn, said (see his speech at the opening of the Parliament 
that met October 29, 1795), that the supplies for the Quiheron 
expedition were furnished out of the American ships, and all 
the accounts received at that time from England stated that 
those seizures were made under the treatj^. After the supplies 
for the Quiberon expedition had been procured, and the ex- 
pected success had failed, the seizures were countermanded; 
and had the French seized provision vessels going to England, 
it is probable that the Quiberon expedition could not have 
been attempted. 

In one point of view, the treaty with Engjand operates as a 
loan to the English government. It gives permission to that 
government to take American property at sea, to any amount, 
and pay for it when it suits her; and, beside this, the treaty 
is in every point of view a surrender of the rights of American 
commerce and navigation, and a refusal to France of the rights 
of neutrality. The American flag is now a neutral flag to 
France; Jay's treaty of surrender gives a monopoly of it to 
England. 

On the contrary, the treaty of commerce between America 
and France was formed on the most liberal principles, and cal- 
culated to give the greatest encouragement to the infant com- 
merce of America. France was neither a carrier nor an ex- 
porter of naval stores, or of provisions ; those articles belonged 
wholly to America; and tiny had all the protection in that 



TO WASHINGTON". 319 

treaty which a treaty can give. But so much has that treaty 
been perverted, that the liberality of it on the part of France 
has served to encourage Jay to form a counter-treaty with 
England ; for he must have supposed the hands of France tied 
up by her treaty with America, when he was making such 
large concessions in favour of England. The injury which 
Mr. Washington's administration has done to the character, as 
well as to the commerce of America, is too great to be repaired 
by him. Foreign nations will be shy of making treaties with 
a government that has given the faithless example of pervert- 
ing the liberality of a former treaty to the injury of the party 
with whom it was made. 

In what fraudulent light must Mr. Washington's character 
appear in the world, when his declarations and his conduct are 
compared together ! Here follows the letter he wro'te to the 
committee of public safety, while Jay was negotiating in pro- 
found secrecy this treacherous treaty : — 

" George Washington, President of the United States of Ame- 
rica, to the representatives of the French people, members 
of the committee of public safety of the French republic, 
the great and good friend and. ally of the United States. 
u On the intimation of the wish of the French republic that 
a new minister should be sent from the United States, I re- 
solved to manifest my sense of the readiness with which my 
request was fulfilled (that of recalling Genet), by immediately 
fulfilling the request of your government (that of. recalling 
Morris.) 

" It was some time before a character could be obtained 
worthy of the high office of expressing the attachment of the 
United States to the happiness of our allies, and drawing 
closer the bonds of our friendship. I have now made choice 
of James Monroe, one of our distinguished citizens, to reside 
near the French republic, in quality of minister plenipotentiary 
of the United States of America. He is instructed to bear to 
you our sincere solicitude for your icelfare, and to cultivate 
with zeal the cordiality so happily subsisting between us. From 
a knowledge of his fidelity, probity, and good conduct, I have 
entire confidence that he will render himself acceptable unto 
you, and give effect to your desire of preserving and advancing 
on all occasions the interests and connexion of the two nations. 



320 paine's letters 

I beseech you, therefore, to give full credence to whatever he 
shall say to you on the part of the United States, and most 
of all, when he shall assure you that your prosperity is an ob- 
ject of our affection. And I pray God to have the French 
republic in his holy keeping. G-. Washington." 

"Was it by entering into a treaty with England to surrender 
French property on board American ships, to be seized by the 
English, while English property on board American ships was 
declared by the French treaty not to be seizable, that the bonds 
of friendship between America and France were to be drawn 
closer f Was it by declaring naval stores contraband when 
coming to France, while by the French treaty they were not 
contraband when going to England, that the connexion between 
France and, America was to be advanced f Was it by open- 
ing the American ports to the British navy in the present 
war, from which ports that same navy had been expelled by 
the aid solicited from France in the American war (and that 
aid gratuitously given), that the gratitude of America was to 
be shown, and the solicitude spoken of in the letter demon- 
strated ? 

As the letter was addressed to the committee of public 
safety, Mr. Washington did not expect it would get abroad in 
the world, or be seen by any other eye than of Robespierre, 
or be heard by any other ear than that of the committee; that 
it would pass as a whisper across the Atlantic from one dark 
chamber to the other, and there terminate. It was calculated 
to remove from the mind of the committee all suspicion upon 
Jay's mission to England, and in this point of view it was 
suited to the circumstances of the moment then passing ; but 
as the event of that mission has proved the letter to be hypo- 
critical, it serves no other purpose of the present moment than 
to show that the writer is not to be credited. Two circum- 
stances served to make the reading of the letter necessary in 
the convention ; the one was, that they who succeeded on the 
fall of Robespierre, found it most proper to act with publicity; 
the other, to extinguish the suspicions which the strange con- 
duct of Morris had occasioned in France. 

When the British treaty and the ratification of it by Mr. 
Washington were known in France, all farther declarations 
from him of his good disposition, as an ally and a friend, 



TO WASHINGTON. 321 

passed for so many ciphers ; but still it appeared necessary to 
keep up the farce of declarations. It is stipulated in the 
British treaty, that commissioners are to report, at the end of 
two years, on the case of neutral ships making neutral property \ 
In the meantime, neutral ships do not make neutral property 
according to the British treaty, and they do according to the 
French treaty. The preservation therefore of the French 
treaty became of great importance to England, as by that 
means she can employ American ships as carriers, while the 
same advantage is denied to France. Whether the French 
treaty could exist as a matter of right after this clandestine 
perversion of it, could not but give some apprehensions to the 
partisans of the British treaty, and it became necessary to 
them to make up by fine words that was wanting in good 
actions. 

An opportunity offered to that purpose. The convention, 
on the public reception of Mr. Monroe, ordered the American 
flag and the French flag to be displayed unitedly in the hall of 
the convention. Mr. Monroe made a present of an American 
flag for the purpose. The convention returned this compli- 
ment, by sending a French flag to America, to be presented 
by their minister, Mr. Adet, to the American government. 
This resolution passed long before Jay's treaty was known or 
suspected : it passed in the days of confidence ; — but the flag 
was not presented by Mr. Adet till several months after the 
treaty had been ratified. Mr. Washington made this the occa- 
sion of saying some fine things to the French minister ; and 
the better to get himself into the tune to do this, he began by 
saying the finest things of himself. 

" Born, sir," said he, " in a land of liberty ; having learned 
its value ; having engaged in a perilous conflict to defend it ; 
having, in a word, devoted the best years of my life to secure 
its permanent establishment in my own country ; my anxious 
recollections, my sympathetic feelings, and my best wishes, 
are irresistibly excited, whenever, in any country, I see an 
oppressed people unfurl the banner of freedom." — Mr. Wash- 
ington having expended so many fine phrases upon himself, 
was obliged to invent a new one for the French, and he calls 
them " wonderful people !" — The coalesced powers acknow- 
ledge as much. 

It is laughable to hear Mr. Washington talk of his sympa 



322 paine's letters 

tlietic feelings, who has always been remarked, even among 
his friends, for not having any. He has, however, given no 
proof of any to me. As to the pompous encomiums he so 
liberally pays to himself on the score of the American revolu- 
tion, the propriety of them may be questioned ; and, since he 
has forced them so much into notice, it is fair to examine his 
pretensions. 

A stranger might be led to suppose, from the egotism with 
which Mr. Washington speaks, that himself, and himself only, 
had generated, conducted, completed, and established, the 
revolution. In fine, that it was all his own doing. 

In the first place, as to the political part, he had no share in 
it; and therefore the whole of that is out of the question vrith 
respect to him. There remains, then, only the military part; 
and it would have been prudent in Mr. Washington not to 
have awakened inquiry upon that subject. Fame then was 
cheap; he enjoyed it cheaply; and nobody was disposed to 
take away the laurels that, whether they were acquired or not, 
had been given. 

Mr. Washington's merit consisted in constancy. But con- 
stancy was the common virtue of the revolution. Who was 
there that was inconstant ? I know but of one military de- 
fection, that of Arnold; and I know of no political defection, 
among those who made themselves, eminent when the revolu- 
tion was formed by the declaration of independence. Even 
Silas Deane, though he attempted to defraud, did not betray. 

But when we speak of military character, something more 
is to be understood than constancy; and something more 
ought to be understood than the Fabian system of doing no- 
thing. The nothing part can be done by anybody. Old Mrs. 
Thompson, the housekeeper of headquarters (who threatened 
to make the sun and the wind shine through Rivington of 
New York), could have done it as well as Mr. Washington. 
Deborah would have been as good as Barak. 

Mr. Washington had the national rank of commander-in- 
chief, but he was not so in fact. He had, in reality, only a 
separate command. He had no control over, or direction of, 
the army to the northward under Gates, that captured Bur- 
goyne; or of that to the south under Greene, that recovered 
the southern states. The nominal rank, however, of com- 
mander-in-chief, served to throw upon him the lustre of those 



TO WASHINGTON. 323 

actions, and to make him appear as the soul and centre of all 
military operations in America. 

He commenced his command June, 1775, during the time 
the Massachusetts army, lay before Boston, and after the aifair 
of Bunker's Hill. The commencement of his command was 
the commencement of inactivity. Nothing was afterward 
done or attempted to be done, during the nine months he re- 
mained before Boston. If we may judge from the resistance 
made at Concord, and afterward at Bunker's Hill, there was a 
spirit of enterprise at that time, which the presence of Mr. 
Washington chilled into cold defence. By the advantage of 
a good exterior he attacts respect, which his habitual silence 
tends to preserve; but he has not the talent of inspiring ardour 
in an army. The enemy removed from Boston to Halifax in 
March, 1776, to wait for reinforcements from Europe, and to 
take a more advantageous position at New York. 

The inactivity of the campaign of 1775, on the part of 
General Washington, when the enemy had a less force than in 
any other future period of the war, and the injudicious choice 
of positions taken by him in the campaign of 1776, when the 
enemy had its greatest force, necessarily produced the losses 
and misfortunes that marked that gloomy campaign. The 
positions taken were either islands or necks of land. In the 
former, the enemy, by the aid of their ships, could bring their 
whole force against General Washington, as in the affair of 
Long Island ; and in the latter, he might be shut up as in the 
bottom of a bag. This had nearly been the case at New York, 
and it was so in part : it was actually the case at Fort Wash- 
ington ; and it would have been the case at Fort Lee if Gene- 
ral Greene had not moved precipitately off, leaving everything 
behind, and by gaining Hackensack bridge, got out of the bag 
of Bergen Neck. How far, Mr. Washington, as general, is 
blam cable for these matters, I am not undertaking to deter- 
mine ; but they are evidently defects in military geography. 
The successful skirmishes at the close of that campaign (mat- 
ters that would scarcely be noticed in a better state of affairs) 
make the brilliant exploits of General Washington's seven 
campaigns. No wonder we see so much pusillanimity in the 
president, when we see so little enterprise in the general! 

The campaign of 1777 became famous, not by anything on 
the part of General Washington, but by the capture of General 



324 paine's letters 

Burgoyne and the army under his command, by the northern 
army at Saratoga, under General Gates. So totally distinct 
and unconnected were the two armies of Washington and 
Gates, and so independent was the latter of the authority of 
the nominal commander-in-chief, that the two generals did 
not so much as correspond, and it was only by a letter of Gen- 
eral (since Governor) Clinton, that General Washington was 
informed of that event. The British took possession of Phila- 
delphia this year, which they evacuated the next, just time 
enough to save their heavy baggage and fleet of transports 
from capture by the French Admiral d'Estaing, who arrived 
at the mouth of the Delaware soon after. 

The capture of Burgoyne gave an eclat in Europe to the 
American arms, and facilitated the alliance with France. The 
eclat, however, was not kept up by anything on the part of 
General Washington. The same unfortunate languor that 
marked his entrance into the field, continued always. Dis- 
content began to prevail strongly against him, and a party was 
formed in Congress while sitting at Yorktown in Pennsylva- 
nia, for removing him from the command of the army. The 
hope, however, of better times, the news of the alliance with 
France, and the unwillingness of showing discontent, dissipated 
the matter. 

Nothing was done in the campaigns of 1778, 1779, 1780, 
in the part where General Washington commanded, except 
the taking Stony Point by General WVyne. The southern 
states in the meantime were overrun by the enemy. They 
were afterwards recovered by General Greene, who had in a 
very great measure created the army that accomplished that 
recovery. In all this General Washington had no share. The 
Fabian system of war followed by him, began now to unfold 
itself with all its evils; for what is Fabian war without Fa- 
bian means to support it? The finances of Congress, depend- 
ing wholly on emissions of paper money, were exhausted. Its 
credit was gone. The continental treasury was not able to 
pay the expense of a brigade of wagons to transport the neces- 
sary stores to the army, and yet the sole object, the establish- 
ment of the revolution, was a thing of remote distance. The 
time I am now speaking of is in the latter end of the year 
1780. 

In this situation of things it was found not only expedient, 



TO WASHINGTON. 325 

but absolutely necessary, for Congress to state the whole case 
to its ally. I know more of this matter (before it came into 
Congress, or was known to General Washington), of its prog- 
ress, and its issue, than I choose to state in this letter. Colo- 
nel John Laurens was sent to France as an envoy extraordi- 
nary on this occasion, and by a private agreement between 
him and me I accompanied him. We sailed from Boston in 
the Alliance frigate, February eleventh, 1781. France had 
already done much in accepting and paying bills drawn by 
Congress; she was now called upon to do more. The event 
of Colonel Laurens' mission, with the aid of the venerable 
minister Franklin, was, that France gave in money, as a pre- 
sent, six millions of livres, and ten millions more as a loan, 
and agreed to send a fleet of not less than thirty sail-of-the- 
line, at her own expense, as an aid to America. Colonel 
Laurens and myself returned from Brest the first of June fol- 
lowing, taking with us two millions and a half of livres (up- 
wards of one hundred thousand pounds sterling), of the money 
given, and convoying two ships with stores. 

We arrived at Boston the twenty -fifth of August following. 
De Grasse arrived with the French fleet in the Chesapeake at 
the same time, and was afterward joined by that of Barras, 
making thirty-one sail-of-the-line. The money was trans- 
ported in wagons from Boston to the Bank of Philadelphia, 
of which Mr. Thomas Willing, who has since put himself at 
the head of the list of petitioners in favour of the British treaty, 
was then president. And it was by the aid of this money, of 
this fleet, and of Rochambeau's army, that Cornwallis was 
taken ; the laurels of which have been unjustly given to Mr. 
Washington. His merit in that affair was no more than that 
of any other American officer. 

I have had, and still have, as much pride in the American 
revolution as any man, or as Mr. Washington has a right to 
have; but that pride has never made me forgetful whence the 
great aid came that completed the business. Foreign aid (that 
of France) was calculated upon at the commencement of the 
revolution. It is one of the subjects treated of in the pam- 
phlet " Common Sense," but as a matter that could not be 
hoped for, useless independence was declared. The aid how- 
ever was greater than could have been expected. 

It is as well the ingratitude as the pusillanimity of Mr. 

VOL. i.— 28 



326 



PAINE S LETTERS 



Washington and the Washington faction, that has brought 
upon America the loss of character she now suffers in the 
world, and the numerous evils her commerce has undergone, 
and to which it is still exposed. . The British ministry soon 
found out what sort of men they had to deal with, and they 
dealt with them accordingly ; and if farther explanation was 
wanting, it has been fully given since, in the snivelling address 
of the New York chamber of commerce to the president, and 
in that of sundry merchants of Philadelphia, which was not 
much better. 

When the revolution of America was finally established by 
the termination of the war, the world gave her credit for great 
character; and she had nothing to do but to stand firm upon 
that ground. The British ministry had their hands too full 
of trouble to have provoked a rupture with her, had she shown 
a proper resolution to defend her rights : but encouraged as 
they were, by the submissive character of the American ad- 
ministration, they proceeded from insult to insult, till none 
more were left to be offered. The proposals made by Sweden 
and Denmark to the American government were disregarded. 
I know not if so much as an answer has been returned to them. 
The minister penitentiary (as some of the British prints called 
him), Mr. Jay, was sent on a pilgrimage to London, to make 
all up b}^ penance and petition. In the mean time, the lengthy 
and drowsy writer of the pieces signed CamUlus held himself 
in reserve to vindicate everything ; and to sound in America 
the tocsin of terror upon the inexhaustible resources of Eng- 
land. Her resources, says he, are greater than those of all 
the other powers. This man is so intoxicated with fear and 
finance, that he knows not the difference between pZz's and 
mimes — between a hundred pounds in hands and a hundred 
pounds worse than nothing. 

The commerce of America, so far as it had been established, 
by all the treaties thad had been formed prior to that by Jay, 
was free, and the principles upon which it was established 
were good. That ground ought never to have been departed 
from. It was the justifiable ground of right : and no tem- 
porary difficulties ought to have induced an abandonment of 
it. The case is now otherwise. The ground, the scene, the 
pretensions, the everything, is changed. The commerce of 
America is by Jay's treaty put under foreign dominion, The 



TO WASHINGTON, 327 

sea is not free for her. Her right to navigate it is reduced to 
the right of escaping ; that is, until some ship of England or 
France stops her vessels, and carries them into port. Every 
article of American produce, whether from the sea or the land, 
fish, flesh, vegetable, or manufacture, is by Jay's treaty made 
either contraband or seizable. Nothing is exempt. In all 
other treaties of commerce the article which enumerates the 
contraband articles, such as firearms, gunpowder, &c, is fol- 
lowed by another which enumerates the articles not contra- 
band : but it is not so in Jay's treaty. There is no exempt- 
ing article. Its place is supplied by the article for seizing and 
carrying into port ; and the sweeping phrase of provisions and 
other articles includes everything. There never was such a 
base and servile treaty of surrender, since treaties began to 
exist. 

This is the ground upon which America now stands. All 
her rights of commerce and navigation are to begin anew, and 
that with loss of character to begin with.- — If there is sense 
enough left in the heart, to call a blush into the cheek, the 
Washington administration must be ashamed to appear.— -And 
as to you, sir, treacherous in private friendship (for so you 
have been to me, and that in the day of danger) and a hypo- 
crite in public life, the world will be troubled to decide 
whether you are an APOSTATE, or an IMPOSTOR— 
Whether you have abandoned good principles, or whether 
you ever had any. Thomas Paine. 



END OF VOL. I. 



